 Kondo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura. I'm your co-host for the show today. And this is a show about Kondo living and for people who work with associations. And my guest today is Raylene Tenno. She's the program director for Hawaii Council of Association of Apartment of Knowledge. Hi, Raylene. Hello. Hi. And oh, and Raylene, I want to make an announcement. Raylene is going to be a co-host of Kondo Insider, and she starts her own show next week. Welcome aboard, Raylene. Thank you. So kind of excited to get that going. Yeah. And you know, our show today, our show today is about, you know, the 2021 Hawaii legislature that just started what two weeks ago, what January 20th has started. And so we're going to be talking about bills that have been introduced so far. And these are Kondo bills. And this doesn't mean that these are bills that are going to pass. In fact, two of them have already died. So I'm just going to refer to them in passing. But that shows you how quickly, you know, these things move. But before we start, you know, for those people who are listening and want to participate in the legislature, we have, we're going to show them how they can, right, Raylene? Yes. And it's actually, it's really simple, you know, so we created a PowerPoint that we can distribute to people to kind of stay on, on, stay abreast. And actually the website is the state website is so much easier now. You can even, so you have to create an account. And then from there, when you log in, you can submit testimony, you can even track individual bills that you can set up for yourself. And it will give you alerts when there's hearing. So it's, it's so much user friendly than it used to be before. So in order to submit, did you want to review the bills first? No, no, no, why don't we just go through how people can participate and submit testimony if they want to participate in the legislature. Okay, so up on the screen, you should show it's the welcome page of the white state legislature. So up at the top on the right hand side would be where you either sign in or you register to establish account. So next. And so that's just a bigger version. And on this PowerPoint is actually the link for the website, which is www.capital.holy.gov. And then on the next page, which show the whole page where you sign up so you would have your name, if you belong to an organization, if you want to fill that out, phone number, email address, which is a requirement. And then you create your password. And then you have to agree to the privacy policy. And then click create user. And then next. And then your page will look like this. So you have the recent updates. So you can, you can see everything that's going on with the legislature. And then you have these orange buttons in the middle of the page. So that's where you can create some do submit testimony. You can create a template for yourself to get hearing notifications on the bills that you're interested in. And also the measure tracking is where you can do a, it's a form you create all the, all the bills that you're interested in, and then it creates kind of like an Excel spreadsheet that has all the measure, all the bill tracking information. And then the next one. So in case you're having a hard time to even have a help section. So that's really good. And the next one. So to submit testimony, you need to know what the bill number is, whether it's an HB or an SB. So you put in that bill number, and then you click continue. And then it will show your, you can do your testimony, but then there's also a help page, and I have it right up on the screen right next to it. It kind of shows how the testimony process works as well. So that's another help page that is useful. Next slide. This is again the, the how to submit testimony and the link that I put on the previous slide shows that link. And it also shows how to join into zoom. If you want to attend a meeting, a hearing, it's all via zoom, nobody's allowed into the capital. So let's review the bills that are upcoming. Okay, so, you know, really was referring to bills, they have a, excuse me, a HB number, HB means house, House bill and Senate bill is an SB SS and Sam be, and they, there are numbers. And that's because the house introduces certain bills, and the Senate also introduces maybe different bills, but in many cases, you have a house bill and a Senate bill that are identical, they're called companion bills. That means if one doesn't make it, you know, in the process that means there's a chance that the other one may so that's why the people who are advocating for bills will always, you know, will try to do a bill in both the house and the Senate. Like the first bill that I'm going to be talking about, and we'll be talking about non judicial foreclosure, and for people who live in condominiums. Maybe non judicial foreclosures is a good thing or a bad thing it depends. If you're on the board of directors, the non judicial foreclosure is a way for the association to collect its maintenance fees. In other words, if somebody doesn't pay their maintenance fees, and you know you don't want to pay a huge legal fees to go through a court foreclosure process, you can use a non judicial process, which allows you to do it by written notice to the owner, saying that you know you owe the association you haven't paid your maintenance fees, and you owe us money, and therefore we're going to take your unit. And so it's a way of taking getting control of the unit, and then they, the association then takes a unit, rents it out, and uses a rental income to pay the maintenance fees. This is a good thing because if you have a person, a unit owner who's not paying their maintenance fees. That means that you know everybody else who is paying you know all the other unit owners end up subsidizing the people who are not paying. So it's in everybody's best interest that everybody pay their fair share. I mean that's the whole whole reason for, for doing this and non judicial foreclosure is just a way that allows the board, the association to collect. And so there's two bills. There's one bill, and that's 606. Yeah, 606. And it's related, and it doesn't say condos it's related to housing. And anyway, it passed out of its first committee. And what it's, it's like the governor's moratorium on addiction, you know he's got a moratorium that says that landlords can't their tenants during the pandemic. And so this bill was introduced by a legislator to say that condominiums can't do non judicial foreclosures and I think they have a date of June 2023. And I think some of the opposition to this was, but that's an awful long time. And you know associations, you know can't wait. You know, three years to collect, you know, past due maintenance fees, because that puts an undue burden on everybody else who is paying their maintenance fees. Right. And anyway, passed with amendments but that was only yesterday. So I don't know what amendments, you know they added to whether they're shortening the period, or you know, making exceptions saying with some, you know, non judicial's, you know can be, you know, pursued and others cannot. But anyway, there is a bill that's in the legislature and it's moving. It's still alive. And it's Senate bill 606 and its House bill 23. And they're both the same identical bill. And the next one for non judicial foreclosures. This is another angle. Okay. First of all, the legislature in 1999, you know, passed a law that basically told condominiums that you know they could do non judicial foreclosures. And then there were some lawsuits that says no no no, you can't do that, because there's something called a power of sale. And that's something that's in a mortgage document that you know when you go to the bank and you make a mortgage, and there's language in the mortgage document the contract between the borrower and lender that says that if you don't pay your mortgage payments, then I can take you or I can take, you know, your, your, your property without going to court. Okay, because that's part of the agreement. And there are, there was some litigation that went all the way up to the Hawaii Supreme Court that basically said, Well, no condominiums you can't do non judicial foreclosures, because you don't have this agreement, like you know the lenders do, but you don't have any document, you don't have like a mortgage document that has a power of sale language that allows you to do a foreclosure without going to court. And, and we don't care, and the Supreme Court said we don't care about that 1999 bill that you guys keep pointing to this says that and that bill basically said that condominiums could do non judicial foreclosure that that this the Hawaii Revised Statute was sufficient to create that right. And the Supreme Court said, Well, maybe, maybe not. So anyway, there is a bill in the legislature and it's Senate bill 199 and House bill 641. This bill basically says because of what the Hawaii Supreme Court did, and disregarded the 1990 legislation that said condos could do non judicial foreclosure even if they didn't have the power of sale language in an agreement between the homeowner and the administration. Now, this bill says that you can that a condominium can amend its governing documents, which means this declaration of the bylaws, which means you know you make a resolution and you send it out to the owners and you vote on it to say that you have a power of sale. Now you have an agreement. Right, because now you've got you're going to amend your declaration to say that you have a power of sale. But anyway, that bill is also moving it went through its first committee hearing, and it passed out with amendments. And the next bill we're going to be talking about is Senate bill 784 and House bill 599. And there's, there's several bills and I'm not going to go into every one of them but there I think there's two or three bills in the legislature now that are on the same subject matter, because of the pandemic condominiums could have a condominiums who could not have their you know who you know who's the annual meetings in 2020 were scheduled to occur after mid March. Right they never got to have them because the governor issued his order saying you couldn't have gatherings. Right and so so so there are many many many condominiums who you know couldn't have their annual meetings because of the gathering and you know so there these there are bills now who say that you know that condominiums can have their annual meeting electronically. And the reason why this is necessary is because the governing documents for condominiums don't have language that says that you can do it. The annual meetings remotely or electronically. There's a statute that allows board meetings to be held in you know in in in where all the board members can hear each other simultaneously. And so because that statute is there. You have all these board board, you know, board of director meetings being held by zoom and WebEx and go to meeting right because of the statute. And so because and and there was a concern that you know you have to include a 421 J which are the community associations and the co op co op of associations but both of them, both of those types of associations because they are most of them are incorporated as nonprofits. There is a provision under HRS 414 121 G's and George, that allows nonprofit corporations to have meetings remotely. Okay, so this one. So only the condominiums are the ones who aren't able to have remote meetings. And so you had a situation where, you know, people can have, they couldn't have annual meetings. People who wanted to get on the board or wanted to get off the board they couldn't have elections. And so so so these these two bills 748 and 599. They basically are saying that condos can have meetings remotely, and they can do electronic voting, or they can do voting by mail. And so I'm pretty sure that and one of the Senate bill had its first hearing, and it passed out with amendments. And I'm, and that's because that bill also included provisions for 421 J community associations and co ops, which we now know are covered by another statute. So it's only going to be condos. And then we're going to the next one, the next one, 729. Now this is interesting, smoking in buildings. Right. Really how many, how many people how many buildings you know that are concerned about smoking. There's a lot, there's a lot, even, even cooking because they go through the events so people come don't like the smell of certain certain people's cooking so that all this whole raises a complaint as well. And this one is what they're what this one is doing is, there was a bill passed earlier that related to chap and not and this doesn't relate to the condominium statute this relates to chapter 328 J. The fact is that it prohibits smoking in public places. That law was passed, you know, several years ago. And there's a provision in there that says that you cannot smoke. You know, this is cigarettes, or anything like cigarettes electronic cigarettes and marijuana in public places in condominium so this bill already, you know, several years ago, said that you can't smoke in the common areas of hotels, and, you know, condos coops community association you couldn't do it in common areas. This bill now is prohibiting smoking in individual units of multiple unit residences. Okay, so now it's targeting the units. I think this one may run into some problems, even though, you know, it's a health and safety issue and we all know that smoke kind of moves, especially if you go up until your alumni, and you know here in Hawaii everybody has a nine doors open right and if your neighbor next door smoking and the smoke comes in it's very irritating. Right. And even I know in my building we have a you can't smoke on the alumni rule. You know, you know, even if you smoke in your unit, you know, some of the smoke, somehow permeates and goes into the other units. And you have people complaining, you have, you have people complaining, and they say it's a health and safety, but then on the other hand, you have people I mean buying a home is one of the biggest investments. You didn't have a no smoking rule, is it fair to pass this law, and then you have a smoker who bought the unit and maybe they are very conscientious and you know they close all their doors and you know they have something under their door so that the smoke doesn't get out so they are very conscientious, and yet now they can't smoke in their unit. Is that fair. And so I think that's where the dispute is going to, that's where the discussion is going to be on these bills, whether it's fair to make, you know, to pass a law that makes something illegal that wasn't illegal yesterday. Right. Yeah, that one, this one is going to be a tough one, a really tough one. So anyway, but anyway, it hasn't had a hearing yet, but you know it was introduced. And then we have on this one's this one. 61 I think it's kind of it comes up every year. Yeah. Okay, Senate bill 61 house bill two to one. Okay, and this is about proxies. And what it does is, those of you who are listening, annual meeting time you get a proxy in the mail there are these boxes that they want you to check off. And there's like four boxes that I can't remember what all of them are. Well one of them is to the board as a whole. And to be, and to be shared. In other words, to the board as a whole and the board all gets together, and they vote and they say okay. How many people want to vote for Jane Doe and how many people want to vote for, you know, Robert Smith, and you know you divvy up the proxies and the board, then votes those proxies. But anyway, this bill says, let's get rid of that box. And really you and I both know this one comes up almost every year. Yeah, always proxies always. Yeah. And so what are you hearing as to why these, why would anybody want to get rid of that box. Because I've been hearing some people complain about giving it to the board as a whole because what if you don't like certain members of the board. You know, so now you've given your vote but, in my opinion, you also have the other box, where you can give it to an individual. You know so you may not want to give it to the board as a whole but you have one board member that you know you like and you, you know they think they're reasonable. So you can always give it to that individual board member. Yeah, I have a choice because that's one of the boxes is a blank. Yeah, you can name somebody. Right. And that one they're not saying let's get rid of that box. Right. So anyway, I don't know how that's going to go but and what I'm saying hearing, for some reason, people think that by marking that box you give the board a power to perpetuate themselves, right they vote for each other. If you mark, give it to the board as a whole they're going to just vote for each other. And then we get if you and if you think you got a bad board, and you give the proxies to the board, then you're perpetuating a bad board, because they're only for themselves. They just have to understand the rules, you don't have to get me. I think because a lot of times for new people due to condominium, they're taught to give it to the board as a whole. I've seen a news that'll go out where it said to give it to the board as a whole and not to give it to an individual, because that individual might have a different agenda than the board. So, so under that thought process, I think people just have to be re educated that you don't automatically give it to the board as a whole if you don't want to, you can give it to an individual member of the board. You can give it to your neighbor if you want, right. Or if you have friends in the building you can give it to your neighbor or to your friend downstairs. Right. Anybody. Yes, right. Because if you if you give it to the board as a whole, you are continuing that you're part of the problem. You know, so. And then the next part of the bill I think is, is a good thing because they're changing some language. And there are where it says that, you know, the old language says no managing agent resident manager, or their employees shall solicit proxies, you know, for the meeting. And what they've added now, which I think is a good thing is association employees because, you know, what it what what this was saying is you couldn't have the managing agent which is like a Hawaiian or an associate or a touchstone. Right or any of their employees solicit proxies, you know, for people who are on the board in other words, I guess what you know some people are afraid of is that you know the board, once they're in, they become all powerful. And if you've got a managing agent and a resident manager, that the board will use those people to get proxies and that's not right. And it's not fair. And I guess if, if it's happening, it's wrong. It has happened. I mean, I, there was one. And it happened to me too. I mean, I got a proxy and then the resident manager solicited I'm like, he's been there for 10 years does he not know the rules, but the managing agent caught it and wouldn't allow that proxy so I still remain I still retain that proxy. So, so I guess, you know, we just have to make sure and and having other association members, you know, would probably other association employees, you know, because some associations have large set. And sometimes you have an office manager. Right. And, you know, or maybe you have a maintenance manager, but you have people who are always talking to people, always talking to the owners and the residents because they're on site, and they see them every day. But you don't want these people, you know, soliciting proxies, because it kind of looks bad, because it's supposed to be a democratic process and every owner is supposed to have a vote, and their vote should count. And, you know, you don't want the perception that the board that's in power is using association staff to solicit proxy because that's an awful. That's an awful thought that, you know, that that might be happening. Right. Right. So I, you know, I think this bill, you know, other than the elimination of the box about the proxy to the board as a whole. I think the rest of it is fine. And so, you know, and that one is also moving. The next one. Oh, the upkeep, the upkeep of that's a big condominium. The unclaimed possession. This is the one about, you know, if you if you have, if you have people who move out and they leave stuff. And I guess the example that we heard about was the bicycles right somebody moved out they left their bicycle, and then the association had to get rid of it. And under the statute now, if somebody moves out and leave stuff, the association has to run an ad other besides trying to contact that person by mail or email or telephone call, you're required under the current statute to run an ad in the newspaper, which runs you several hundreds of dollars. Right. I mean, I think I heard that in one case it was $1500. Yeah, and a bike is probably worth $10 right. And anyway, so now what this and the landlord tenant code, you know, talks about disposing of tenant personal property has a provision that's similar, but it doesn't require publication. It still does it just eliminates the publication. It still requires the association if the tenant leaves something that you have to take a diligent steps to try to contact that person before you dispose of it. And, you know, and, and I, I, you know, tell condominiums if you're going to be doing this, you need to, you know, keep records if you're going to, you know, give it to donate donated to a charity, you need to keep, you know, records on on on what happens with it. But anyway, that one, how did it went through a hearing and it passed out with amendments and because that was only yesterday I don't know what amendments, you know, were made. So we'll have to look on that one. And then, okay, Bill House bill 307 is Oh, this is another bill that allows for electronic electronic meetings. So that's just like, you know, bill 708. But this one allows for the electronic or machine voting, which is going to be interesting how that gets implemented if it passes. And that's going to be a big cost for the equipment and the software. And that's going to be passed on it would be the manager you're probably buying it but it's but that cost is going to be passed on to all the associations under their umbrella. That will be kind of crazy. And yeah, and you know, there is a pet bill. And I don't have the number of that. But you know it's it's not anything, you know, very earth shaking and and what they've what this bill does, but what it is it's an opening whenever there's a bill with the subject matter. Right. That's it allows you to submit testimony. And what this bill is doing is saying that if you if you have a you know how the internet has these vests, and they have these certificates, and they say, you know, this animal is a sort of is a service animal. And this bill basically says it's bogus we all know it's bogus. And this bill says it's bogus and you don't have to pay any attention to it. And so I think, you know, for. And I think, you know, with our group or we're going to do is submit some testimony that says, and besides that, what you need to do is beef up the law to say that you know, when whenever request for reasonable accommodation is made that somehow we get assurance that the person who's the request has actually seen the person and, you know, made an evaluation that the person is disabled, and it truly needs this emotional support animal to alleviate the symptoms of the disability but anyway, that gives us an opening, and we're kind of running out of time. I know. So, so anyway, stay tuned and we will keep you, you know, posted on on what happens and and Raylene this could be one of the subject of one of your condo insiders down the road right. So anyway, good luck next week, and welcome aboard new co host of condo insider, and thank you for the people who are listening to the show thank you for joining us and please join us next week for Ray Lee's debut her first show. So please tell your friends, next week Ray Lee is going to be on the show, and she would really really love for you to tune in and listen. So thank you and Mahalo for joining us. Thank you.