COM 0945.000 1996-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Richard D. wurdeman, Eeq. David 8. Arakewa, Esq. J, P. Schmidt, Esq. August 4, 1998 Page 5 The seminal cans involving legislative failure to act upon cost items was filed in 1979 before the Hawaii Public Employment Relations Board in Hawaii F~ref<qh-e a v. rtyoshi, Decision No. 111, 2 HPSRB 286 (1979). This ease involved a collective bargaining agreement arbitrated pursuant to Section 89-11(d), HRS. Like section 69-10, IMS, section 89-11, RES, has a provision that "all items requiring any moneys for implementation shall be subject to nkgwopriations by the appropriate legislative bodies." In the 8awala Firefighters case, the respective legislative bodies had all failed to expressly approve or disapprove the cost items submitted to them for funding. As a result, the union tiled a prohibited practice charge against tha Governor and all the Mayora. The Board discussed at length the Governor's submittal of the cost items for funding and the Legislature's adjournment without acting upon the funding request despite the fact that the Legislature had enough time to act upon the request had it desired to do so. The Board described the Legislature's adjournment without acting upon the request to fund the cost items as a "rejection of the cost items.- li!VAU :r iQ ter , 2 HPERB at 299. The Board's dictum is consistent with the opinion expressed in the Attorney General Opinion No. 72-10. The Hawaii Public Employment Relations Board (the predecessor of the Hawaii Labor Relations Board) is the agency created to administer Chapter 89, HRS, it is a well established rule of statutory construction that, where an administrative agency is charged with the responsibility of carrying out the mandate of a statute which contains words of broad and indefinite meaning, courts accord persuasive weight to administrative construction and follow the same, unless the construction is palpably erroneous. SC3i.ip!'laole v. Wilson, 85 Hawaii 217, 226 (1991). The practice has particular weight when it involves a contemporaneous construction of a statute by those -charged with the responsibility of setting its machinery in motion, of making the parts work efficiently and amoothly while they are yet untried and new." TrUloar v Swlnerton b walberg Co., 65 Haw. 415, 424 (1982)_ The Attorney General's opinion was issued over twenty six years ago. The Hawaii Labor Relations Board's case was decided over nineteen years ago. The two are in agreement that legislative failure to appropriate funding for cost items is to be considered rejection. 08/04/98 17:23 TX/RX N0.8856 P.006