Senate Judiciary committee advances wide range of bills, including tighter historic-property test and tougher repeat-speeding penalty

The Senate Committee on Judiciary met Feb. 26 in a decision-making session and advanced a broad slate of bills affecting historic-preservation criteria, criminal penalties, environmental review, housing governance and health-care records.

An opening presentation of SB 15 proposed narrowing the definition of “historic property” so that a parcel must be at least 50 years old and either meet criteria for the Hawaii Register of Historic Places or have important value to Native Hawaiians or other ethnic groups. "This amends the definition of historic property to require that the property meets the criteria for inclusion in the ... Hawaii register of historic places," said Speaker 1. The committee recommended passage with amendments and the measure was adopted.

The panel also approved SB 97, which raises the penalty for a third or subsequent excessive-speeding offense to a class C felony. Committee discussion clarified that the bill, as amended, would specify an indeterminate term of imprisonment of five years under the relevant statutory provision, remove an unauthorized mandated driver-retraining course, and clarify fingerprinting procedures. The committee voted to pass the measure with amendments.

Other notable measures the committee advanced include: - SB 371: Establishes criminal property-damage offenses for critical infrastructure and accepts an amendment to limit changes to the manslaughter statute, while explicitly applying the bill to broadband and cable networks. - SB 1322: Amends emergency-transport and liability provisions for mental-health crises, restores provider-initiated transport authority in some circumstances, and narrows proposed immunity language. - SB 1253 (listed as SB 253 in committee): Requires condominium association budget summaries to be contained in a single document and shifts the association’s burden to show substantial compliance; the committee accepted amendments, including one credited to Philip Nerney. - SB 1421 and SB 1439: Clarify medical-records retention rules on provider closure and affirm the Department of Health’s authority to address nuisances affecting environmental or public health.

A number of bills were advanced “as is” with committee reports or minor technical edits, including measures on county enforcement of accessible parking (SB 1008), wage-payment enforcement (SB 1454), updates to controlled-substances law (SB 1452), and landlord application-fee restrictions (SB 1662). The committee deferred a motorcycle-instruction-permit bill (SB 1481) and a Uniform Information Practices Act amendment (SB 1255) for further work.

Votes at a glance (committee action recorded in transcript): - SB 15 — Recommended to pass with amendments; adopted by the committee. - SB 97 — Recommended to pass with amendments; adopted by the committee. - SB 145 — Recommended to pass as is; adopted. - SB 253 — Recommended to pass with amendments; adopted. - SB 371 — Recommended to pass with amendments; adopted. - SB 94 (water-pollution/large-landowner liability) — Advanced with a defective date for further work; adopted with reservations noted. - SB 1008, SB 1454, SB 1452, SB 1322, SB 1421, SB 1439, SB 1660, SB 1662, and others — Advanced/adopted as indicated in committee. - SB 1481 and SB 1255 — Deferred for additional work.

The transcript records each measure as adopted or deferred where noted, but does not include a complete roll-call tally for every vote in consistent numeric form; where individual members were recorded as “aye,” “no” or “excused” in the transcript those notations were noted by the committee clerk.

What it means: Many of the measures are procedural or technical refinements (updates to code, record-retention rules, alignment with federal changes), but several carry policy impact at the state level — most notably the tightening of the historic-property definition, the potential felony penalty for repeat excessive-speeding offenses, and changes to mental-health emergency-transport rules and liability. Bills recorded as adopted will move to the next step in the legislative process; deferred items will return after additional drafting.

The committee adjourned after completing the decision-making agendas and noted a subsequent decision-making session with Ways and Means on Feb. 11.