HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-02-04 Letter to Henry Aquino and Troy Hashimoto HB 2556 Relating to Vehicles and HB 2598 Relating to Abandoned and Derelict Vehicles. v • tires..
Roy Takemoto
��bi;? Managing Director
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Harry Kim ,i.
Mayor
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, Barbara J.Kossow
Deputy Managing Director
County of Hawai
Office of the Mayor
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February 4, 2020
Representative Henry J.C. Aquino, Chair
Representative Troy Hashimoto, Vice Chair
Committee on Transportation
Hawaii State Legislature
Dear Chair Aquino, Vice-Chair Hashimoto, and Committee members:
RE: HB 2556 Relating to Vehicles
HB 2598 Relating to Abandoned and Derelict Vehicles
On today's agenda there are two bills dealing with abandoned vehicles. I thank the Legislature for
continuing to try to solve this perennial problem.
HB 2556 would make abandonment of a vehicle a misdemeanor, and would give our Finance Director
some power to withhold an offender's future car registrations and/or temporarily suspend the person's license.
This would obviously only apply in those limited cases where the wrongdoer can be identified, and I would be
concerned that the wrong owner may get penalized (for example, if a person sells his/her car but the buyer
never registers it, the seller would be on the hook for the fees). On the other hand, the bill might serve to
discourage the bad conduct of someone who is thinking about abandoning a vehicle.
I defer to the Committee on this one.
HB 2598 would set up a Task Force to make recommendations. Since this problem is one of long
standing, and seems to affect every jurisdiction, maybe bringing people together will result in some practical
solutions. The bill calls for involvement of the police departments, which is good; perhaps it should also
include the county departments which deal with the actual disposal of the vehicles, such as the Hawaii County
Department of Environmental Management. Either way, I support HB 2598.
Respectfully Submitted,
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Harry
Kim
MAYOR
County of Hawai`i is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer.