Senate defeats ban
on partial-birth abortion

The House-approved bill fails on a
15-10 vote, and a Hawaii Right to Life
leader vows to try again

By Keith Kosaki
Star-Bulletin

Andy Blom says Hawaii Right to Life will be back and win passage of a bill banning so-called partial birth abortions.

The organization's executive director was happy the bill, which had earlier won House approval, went as far as it did.

Bill supporters yesterday pulled the measure from the Senate Health Committee, but after an emotional debate it died on the Senate floor.

Sen. James Aki (D, Waianae) made the motion to pull the bill from committee, where it had stalled, and nine senators backed the rare move. But the bill failed in a 15-10 vote.

Health Co-Chairman Andrew Levin (D, Volcano), jeered twice by abortion foes in the Senate gallery, said he decided to hold the bill because it didn't have a provision to protect the mother's health.

"The Senate explored the possibility of dealing with the issue, but the advocates of the bill were not interested in working on that possible solution," Levin said.

But Aki said the procedure is "quite simply wrong."

Under the partial-birth abortion procedure, the fetus is partially extracted feet first from the birth canal and then has its brain sucked out.

"I ask everyone to look into their heart and do what is right," Aki said.

Before the vote to pull the bill, Democrats, who control the Senate, caucused for two-hours behind closed doors. Growing restless, a standing-room crowd of about 300 in the gallery chanted, "We want life." Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Ben Villaflor told them to be quiet.

As senators emerged from the caucus room, Health Co-Chairwoman Lehua Fernandes Salling (D, Kapaa) made angry finger-pointing gestures to her fellow co-chairman, Levin, at one point.

During the debate, Sens. Avery Chumbley (D, Kihei) and Rod Tam (D, Nuuanu) opposed the bill. Chumbley, a Judiciary co-chairman, argued similar bills enacted in other states were deemed unconstitutional.

Tam opposed it because it did not have a Senate public hearing.

Sen. Sam Slom (R, Kalama Valley) supported the bill because he felt one legislator shouldn't have authority to decide what is a "good bill," and added, "If we were to limit our discussion to only good bills or nondefective measures, then we can save ourselves about 3,995 bills per year."

Sen. Norman Sakamoto (D, Moanalua) said the bill doesn't threaten legal abortions, but deals with a single procedure. "We're talking about a single horrific procedure. This particular procedure we cannot allow."

Although he declined to join the maneuver to pull the bill, Sen. Cal Kawamoto (D, Waipahu) voted for the measure.

The nine other senators who voted to pull the bill and also voted in favor of it were: Aki, Slom, Sakamoto, Marshall Ige (D, Kaneohe) Malama Solomon (D, Kohala), Robert Bunda (D, Wahiawa), Randy Iwase (D, Mililani), Joe Tanaka (D, Kahului) and Whitney Anderson (R, Kailua).

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Cayetano signs
bills to sell auditorium,
standardize milk prices

Star-Bulletin

Sale of the Mabel Smyth Auditorium by the state for $5 million to Queen Emma Foundation for Queen's Medical Center to use for classes, meetings and training moved a step closer with legislation signed by Gov. Ben Cayetano.

The bill authorizes a $5 million, public auction of the facility.

"It makes good business sense to sell the Mabel Smyth Auditorium since it's not being used," Cayetano said.

"The state used the auditorium for public meetings when the state Capitol was under renovation," and now Queen's wants to make use of it, he said.

Other bills Cayetano recently signed:

Give Hawaii milk producers a "permanent solution" to develop a formula to set raw milk prices to help them compete with mainland milk producers. The Board of Agriculture will set minimum Hawaii raw milk prices and production quotas to stay competitive with imported milk.

Make emergency appropriations for the University of Hawaii -- $100,000 in special funds and $100,000 in revolving funds for fiscal 1998 to allow UH to manage its workers compensation costs.

Allow the state Ethics Commission to determine if a charge of a lobbying violation is frivolous only upon written request of the person charged.

Allow the UH Board of Regents to expedite contested case proceedings by authorizing the university president to make a final decision.

Designate the first Wednesday of June as Ocean Day -- to highlight the role the ocean plays in lives of Hawaii's people, culture, history and traditions.

Make any nonpartisan county election requiring a runoff election -- when no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the votes -- subject to the same six-day challenge period as a primary or special primary election and the runoff election subject to the same 20-day challenge period as any general, special general or special election. Now, counties each have differing election provisions.

Provide trustees with flexibility in distributing property, conforming to the Uniform Trustees Powers Act by allowing trustees to distribute property in kind on a pro rata and nonpro rata basis, as long as the actions comply with conditions of the trust.

Amend the horsepower and maximum speed limit for mopeds.

Authorize the Hawaiian Homes Commission to invest money in the Native Hawaiian Rehabilitation Fund, based on commission-approved investment guidelines similar to the state Employees' Retirement System, and reclassify special funds as trust funds to more accurately reflect the character of these funds, with the intent of earning higher interest.

Establish an ad hoc panel of vertebrate biologists to identify if an animal is a prohibited hybrid when the state Department of Agriculture suspects an animal's lineage differs from what the owner says it is. The bill resulted from a recent case in which an owner contested a decision that his pet was part wolf.

Improve bicycle safety by allowing bicyclists to ride on roadway shoulders.

Eliminate references to a repealed statute that addresses voter registration access, a technical housekeeping measure.

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Deadline produces
a flurry of activity on
nonmoney bills

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

Midnight at the Legislature brought a flurry of pens and paper as House and Senate conferees signed measures they had agreed to just minutes before an internal deadline for nonmoney bills.

The bills approved last night allow employers to consider a person's criminal history when hiring and to give limited protection from lawsuits when giving a job reference on a former employee.

The signings ended a night of bargaining, ultimatums and walk-outs as conferees on the Labor and Judiciary Committees struggled to find a middle ground.

At one point in the evening, House negotiators threatened to go home for the night and let the bills die when Senators left for a 10-minute discussion that turned into a two-hour meeting.

There may be more brinkmanship to come tonight as conferees work out differences on the privatization issue and on a bill to address the state Supreme Court's Mitchell decision on stress-related workers' compensation claims resulting from disciplinary action.

"We're still far apart," said House Labor Committee Chairman Nobu Yonamine (D, Pearl City) on the privatization bill to uphold existing contracts and allow the state and counties to privatize some government services.

"We're talking to the different parties involved to try to move to the point where we have a bill by the deadline," said Senate Human Resources Committee Chairman Brian Kanno (D, Makakilo).

Most of the drama last night was over a single word in the criminal history bill.

The Senate proposed to allow employers to consider conviction records of a prospective employee if there is a "substantial relationship" to the job being offered.

The House insisted on the phrase "rational relationship".

Both are legal terms but the phrase "rational relationship" would give employers more flexibility in determining whether a criminal conviction could be considered when hiring.

Both sides agreed employers would not be able to ask about conviction records on a job application but could consider convictions after a conditional job offer is made.

Negotiations stalled at about 11 p.m. when the House refused to move from its position and Senators struggled to reach a consensus to keep the measure alive.

With less than 15-minutes to go before midnight, the Senate agreed to accept the "rational relationship" language if the House agreed employers would not be able to consider conviction records more than 10-years old.

Perry Confalone, who worked on the bill for the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, said the chamber would have prefered taking arrest and conviction records out of employment discrimination laws.

But, he said, the measure appears to be acceptable.

"Rational relationship should give employers enough latitude to make good business judgments," he said.

After much negotiation, the House and Senate also agreed to language in a job reference liability bill.

The bill would give employers protection from lawsuits if, in good faith, they give information about a former employee that is not knowingly false or misleading.

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Dead or alive

Here's the status of bills at the Legislature:

GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Government secrecy (Alive): Allows state boards to hold secret meetings when private donations are discussed.

Office of Information Practices (Alive): Requires that OIP administer open meetings law; moves OIP to lieutenant governor's office for administrative purposes.

Privatization (Pending Friday deadline):

House: Allows any government official to contract with a private entity to provide services when there is "a reasonable basis" to believe that the services can be provided at a lower cost and in equal or better quality than by government.

Senate: Establishes a managed competition process; temporarily allows privatization by exempting government contracts from civil service laws; prohibits terminations and provides protection to public employees who may be transferred because of privatization. Provides for transforming, in a five-year period, the state's line-item budget to a performance-based budgeting system.

BISHOP ESTATE

Trustee compensation (Dead): House wants a task force to study compensation of trustees for Bishop Estate and other charitable trusts. Senate wants to a salary limit equal to the Hawaii Chief Justice's, allowing more pay deemed reasonable by the Probate Court.

BUSINESS

Job reference liability (Alive):

House: Grants immunity to employers from civil liability for disclosing "good faith" job performance assessments of workers to prospective employers.

Senate: Grants "qualified immunity" to employers who provide fair and truthful information about a worker's job performance to a prospective employer.

Stress-related workers compensation (Pending Friday deadline):

House: Prohibits stress-related workers compensation arising from "good faith" disciplinary or personnel action.

Senate: Prohibits stress-related workers compensation arising from "just cause" disciplinary action.

EDUCATION

Board of Education (Alive): Changes the elected school board to one appointed by the governor.

Education Accountability (Alive): Establishes a temporary commission on educational accountability; authorizes the Department of Education to hire retired teachers on a part-time basis for one school year; authorizes the BOE to charge a deposit fee on school books.

ELECTIONS

Campaign spending (Dead) Includes political parties and their national affiliates under contribution limits set for political action committees and individuals, meaning the amount parties can give is reduced from $50,000 to $6,000.

Campaign contributions (Alive): Restricts contributions of $50,000 to a two-year period instead of any election year. Provides that any expenditure made to a governor or a lieutenant governor candidate supporting a running mate shall not be considered a campaign contribution.

HAWAIIAN ISSUES

Hawaiian Homes (Alive): Appropriates $216,182 emergency funding to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands so the attorney general can continue legal representation of the department before the Individual Claims Review Panel.

Traditional Hawaiian healing (Alive): Convenes a panel of Hawaiian healers to define, certify and regulate traditional Hawaiian medical practices that would be exempt from state law banning the practice of medicine without a license.

HUMAN SERVICES

Child protection (Alive): Stresses that child safety, not reunification, is the priority for Child Protective Services; allows doctors to share medical information involving children in CPS system.

LAND AND WATER

Land Use Commission (Dead): Renames the state LUC the state Planning Commission; gives the state panel sole authority in conservation and agricultural districts; gives the counties sole authority in urban and rural districts and sole authority over zoning matters.

Waiahole Ditch purchase (Alive): Authorizes general obligation bonds of $10.2 million to purchase, improve and operate the Waiahole water system to assure adequate water to Leeward Oahu farmers.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Criminal history checks (Alive): Authorizes the city to establish procedure to conduct criminal history checks of its employees who work in close proximity to children. Exempts from checks workers employed prior to June 1, 1998.

HIV testing (Pending Friday deadline): Allows victims of sexual assault to have accused assailants tested for the HIV virus.

Prostitution (Alive):

Creates new offense of street solicitation that would ban prostitutes from walking in Waikiki at night as a condition of bail or probation. Allows counties to set up similar laws for other areas.

Prisons (PENDING, Friday midnight deadline):

House: Permits a private firm to build a state prison on public or private land with a lease-sale option to the state.

Senate: Amends bill by creating a planning commission to represent residents of Kau, where a prison may be built. Also prohibits the construction of a Kau prison unless six of commission's nine voting members agree.

TRANSPORTATION

Ferry system (Alive): Authorizes Transportation Department to implement an a water ferry system project along the southern coast of Oahu. Report due to the 2000 Legislature.

Driver's license revocation (Alive): Permits administrative revocation of the driver's license of a person tested for evidence of driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor after having been involved in a motor vehicle accident.

HIGHER EDUCATION

UH Autonomy (Alive): Grants UH more flexibility in running the university system.

Unaccredited degree-granting institution (Dead): Prohibits unaccredited institutions from issuing post-secondary degrees unless the institutions comply with certain standards.

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LEGISLATURE UPDATE

A calendar of tomorrow's hearings -- to be held at the state Capitol, 415 S. Beretania St., unless noted:

HOUSE

None scheduled.

SENATE

None scheduled.

CONFERENCE

None scheduled.