 I'm Marcia Joyner and we are navigating the journey and today we are journey our journey is right here in Honolulu and we are going to visit with Della Albalates she's a dear friend and all of you that have been watching you know I only talk to dear friends and she is the majority leader in the House of Representatives and this time the time is right now we are in what we're calling election season since we the state voted a couple of years ago they were head of the curve that we would do all mail-in voting balloting and it we did it for the primary and it worked wonderful it's the largest turnout we've had since childhood so so we're going to meet with Della today representative Della Albalates and we'll talk about the legislature and this voting season and what the legislature does and how it does it so welcome welcome Della thank you for taking the time to be with us thank you for having me Marcia I always enjoy speaking with you oh you're so sweet didn't I tell you people that I only talked to your friends but so talk tell us about Della so I was elected in 2006 I am also a practicing civil rights attorney so I'm a legislator and an attorney I have two beautiful daughters and a wonderful partner in life who makes sure that I stay on track I just I feel very privileged to have served in the state house for close to 14 years and I have the very special privilege of serving as the house majority leader now so you've had other positions within the hierarchy so what what do these different position other than the speaker I know what the speaker the house does but what are these other positions what so sure as house majority leader I get to represent the caucus I help to shape the agenda it's a lot of working with other chairs and advancing priorities of the caucus and it's really just helping to advance all of the legislation on behalf of the state of the of Hawaii in addition to that I mean I am just a simple I just have one vote as well I am a state representative I represent urban Honolulu, Makiki, Tatlis, Papakalea areas and so I'm just one more voice amongst the 51 representatives in the state house of representatives so you mentioned caucus the different caucus what what is a caucus so caucus is a collection of members for you know gathering because they have certain interest in common the biggest caucus is the majority caucus and it's all the elected Democrats in the house we have a minority caucus that's the Republicans we also have subject matter caucuses so for example you've heard a lot about the Kapuna caucus the Hawaii women's legislative caucus the Keiki caucus and so those tend to be bipartisan groups and we focus around certain issues so for example for the Hawaii women's legislative caucus we've been leaders on advancing legislation to stop domestic violence title 9 legislation in the vein of supporting and making sure women have equal opportunities in educational settings so there are those types of caucuses so there's lots of ways that we kind of cut and parse ourselves out but at the end of the day in the state house it comes down to the 51 representatives on the state floor and we each get a single vote now 51 that is one from each district in the state the whole state yes and you know speaker psyche has been very eloquent in saying this you know he really believes that the state house is the house of the people because me as the elected officials really represent almost the smallest unit of government the smallest district senators typically represent three times as many people city councils also represent larger groups so really the house members are very much connected to their communities and they are probably the closest representative in this elected democracy that we have yeah I know my the person that represents my district he answers his own phone in the office you call the answers the phone you know my favorite part of being represented is when I can go to the food land and I see my neighbors and they recognize me and we have a conversation so it's really quite wonderful it is it is and what because it's a smaller group like you said the city council is huge and one day I'm going to get up enough energy to I'll come back to you and sue the city and and no in 1908 when it became a city when they incorporated the city and county of Honolulu there were eight in the county whatever they call it eight members here we are 2020 and there's nine don't you think we ought to have more more representatives probably so yeah to to increase by one since 1908 just something wrong but that's a different story we'll come back to them some other time okay now so back to the house representatives it is you are created just like the feds right there's the executive legislative and the council or whatever the judicial judicial yeah yeah so in the in our legislative branch we have two houses the house of representatives which which has 51 members like I said and then the Senate which has 25 members so it's a larger body or it's a smaller body that represents larger districts we are bicameral so when legislation moves through the house and the Senate during the legislative process it has to pass both houses and it has to get agreement from both houses and then once a bill is agreed upon if there are any differences then there has to be a conference committee so that's how we work and then the Senate in particular has different jobs they also confirm judges and confirm appointments in the executive branch we don't have that task as the as the house what you got enough to do okay let's let's go back a bill how does how does it become law where does it begin middle and I know I know and everybody hears about days to cross over and like nobody ever knows what it is except that everybody knows oh this is crossover so tell us if I had an idea and I come to Della and I say I think this should be a law how do we make it a bill and how does it move so you actually hit it right on the head Marsha the bill starts with an idea and really it can start anywhere in the community and I think I'm gonna actually go one step back what's really important is that right now right now before session starts so in October November December is the time when community groups and stakeholders are really thinking about what do I want to introduce what is the idea I have that I want to introduce so you can be talking to legislators like me now sharing your ideas and then what happens is in January in our system of government the only way an idea becomes a bill that can become a law is it has to be introduced by a state senator or a state representative we do not have initiative in our in our state and and I think that has certain implications I don't support initiative typically because it can create some large problems at times so really in our state we have chosen to make sure that it's through your state representatives and state senators that you can introduce a bill now that's where after the introduction that's the easy part it gets a little bit more complicated because bills ideas have to be heard in both houses so they go through a process where they're they're introduced in in both houses and they maybe the same content they go through the committees typically three readings on each side and they might get changed and then they cross over so like how you said they cross over from House to Senate and Senate to House and then what happens is it goes through another process and so we start off typically with 3,000 bills by the end of this process after crossover and the final readings in both houses we will whittle it down to about maybe 300 bills by the end of the session now that it doesn't just end there so after both houses hear it if there are still differences then we go into a process called conference committee and in conference committee we have smaller groups of Senate senators and representatives who negotiate over the final language of the bill and then it still doesn't end there because there has to be a final reading of the exact same bill by both house and Senate so once that happens we have a bill that's been passed it goes to the governor it still doesn't end there once it goes to the governor he can have an opportunity to vet it to see did we make any mistakes does he have any grave reservations and then he can veto it and the final check and balance is that if the governor vetoes it and if enough members of the House and Senate say no governor we don't agree with you we can override the veto so it's quite a long process typically from January through maybe July we end in May and the governor can review the bill until about July now that's in a typical year but this past year was a little bit different we had a session that extended into June so the governor actually didn't finish reviewing our bills until early late August early September and so those finally got got they went through the process of veto and there were no vetoes or there were some vetoes but there were no veto overrides this year so we still follow that same process it just got a little bit extended because of the pandemic this year now you mentioned we talked about it three thousand bills obviously oh your session though is broken into two right yeah yeah beginning in January until May then you have a recess and then you come back in January and complete those session is that correct so we have what's called a biennium yeah every every two years is sort of like a block right and for the state representatives representatives get up for election every two years so we deal so for representatives we deal in like two year blocks and what happens is the budget is also a biennium budget so typically in the first year of the biennium we pass the executive budget and then in the second year of the biennium that's when we do the supplemental budget and so that's that's a different kind of bill that actually goes through all of the same processes but it's the larger basic you know operating budget of the state so that that that is a very important bill to lots of people okay so if you have 2500 bills the first coming this January and everybody shows up everybody's caucus has a bill everybody's got something okay so you put that in the hopper then some of those die and some of those are carried over to the next session now so in between do we get to come in with new bills yes oh my god so that's how you get I know last year it was three thousand but it's 51 people reading three thousand bills just it boggles the mind so the way we do it and this is what's great I think about our system of government is we have a system of committees right so it's close to impossible for anyone to read every single bill but through the committee system what happens is depending upon the subject matter a bill is assigned different committees and different committees review it for different reasons so for example a bill that say about minimum wage first goes through the labor committee because that's the most relevant subject matter but then it eventually may go to the finance committee because it has fiscal implications and so that's how we deal with it we take little but bite-sized chunks of it and we look at them and then some bills never ever get past the first committee so that's one way which we kind of whittle it down to the very very very most important bills I also think that this speaks to the fact that you know bills sometimes get introduced and reintroduced over a number of years and honestly sometimes it's it's it's very rare for a bill to get passed in the very first year that it's introduced it can happen but typically larger bills that have really huge implications I mean you and I have seen this right it happened with the aid in dying bill it happened with Canada there are bills that don't get passed for decades now we shouldn't leave it for that long but at times you know it's a reflection that our communities are changing and the values are changing and people's ideas are changing so I think that's one of the beauties of democracy you can keep coming back and we can keep working on these ideas until we gain greater acceptance of it and then we can pass really good policies okay let's go back to the beginning so I show up in your office with my type this is my idea and I say here this is what I want do you send that off to somebody to refine it to make sure the language is correct and all of those kinds of things yes and then decides where it goes with committees sure so we have drafting agencies that help us draft bills and that's it's it's more arcane it's more technical we have to write bills in certain ways so that's we gave it to the drafting agencies when bills get reported out and they're given a number then what happens is in each chamber the leadership has a process where they decide who gets or what bills get assigned to what committees it's called the referral process so in the house the way that we've done it here in the house is that a smaller group of more senior house leaders review each of those bills so we quickly look at it look at the description and over a period of about probably a week we get the referrals out we are actually trying to work faster than that because you know our legislative cycle is very fast so we have only 60 legislative days and if bills don't get the proper hearings depending upon their referrals then they can die so it's really important that the referral process we try to be quick about it and so that's and that's and that's what what happens so but you have the is that the lrb or whatever it's called those are our drafting agencies our lrb legislative reference bureau the house majority staff office and the house minority staff office there is another way that bills cannot get introduced before we leave this Marsha the governor is allowed to submit a package of bills and typically he submits his budget so those bills get introduced by the house speaker and the senate president oh and then they go through the same process so as a courtesy to the governor's office the house speaker and the senate president introduce the governor's package of bills do they work together on that or is that separate the house no it's typically the governor's office does it there their government agencies do it on their own and it's just a courtesy we just introduced those bills as written yeah you know I'm saying this what I meant to say is do you as the house presented and does the senate present it or is it one do you come together to present the governor's package it gets introduced both on the house and the senate side yeah okay and so now that we've got this bill let's okay so we're Democrats the Democratic Party says I had we had this is what our people think is important this year and this is what we voted on so here's the package then what happens and I mean not I'm saying the Democrats because that's what I know but I'm sure the Republicans do the same thing what happens then when you have this this package as it's called sure so after the committee assignments are referred then the committee chair people the chairperson gets to decide which bills will be heard now members can lobby the chair to hear certain bills and then typically when it gets heard that's when bills get changed amended anybody can come in and provide testimony during the hearing of a bill and that's when you'll see changes being made now you know you mentioned the Democratic Party there's lots of groups out there caucuses that's what I'm saying that because that's what I know but I'm certain other groups doing the same thing yeah so everyone and anybody can come in and basically lobby the legislators for what bill they want and then we go through the amending process and then you know bills get changed bills get changed so it's really important for members of the public to keep engaged and then as bills change to continue to provide testimony because as some people have said it's not a sprint it's a marathon you have to go from January to May and lots of things lots and lots of things can happen with a bill in just a few months now we hear a lot about especially and in in Washington DC about lobbyist what is a lobbyist now I I'm not but you know that I will follow a bill to forever what is the lobbyist so a lobbyist is typically an advocate for an issue a group and they there's different types of lobbyists there's the paid lobbyist right you know the person that's their job so they're working to advocate and they can be working for all kinds of groups you know there's corporations that hire lobbyists there's community citizen groups that hire lobbyists there's nonprofit organizations that hire lobbyists so you can anybody can hire lobbyists I think there's also what you call a citizen lobbyist you know any member of the public particularly in the state of Hawaii can essentially write to their legislator email their legislator call their legislators offices and basically say this is what I think about a bill so you have you know regular citizen lobbyists Marcia we consider you're a professional citizen lobbyist professional citizen lobbyist you can come in and that's how people affect legislation and you know in this day and age where social media is allowing us to really connect with all kinds of people I would say that there's lots of people who now can get engaged at different levels in the legislative process so for me the word lobbyist is not a dirty word it's it's a word that's meant to be you're engaged in the process and how are you trying to change and influence it I know some people have a problem with the word lobbyist but you know what everyone has the opportunity to weigh in and that's what's great about our system and can we talk about the budget sure okay now you know I'm I'm the world's worst but I do know that the state depends on the tax and with all of the hotels closed what are we doing about that hole in the income so I will say that this is like no other time that I've experienced in state government and it's not just the TAT the transient accommodation tax right that's the tourist tax that you're talking about right GET our general excise revenues tax which is the broadest tax that allows us to really have lots of funds to be able to pay for all of the important government services we need you know things like roads public schools highways hospitals all of that is paid with taxes we are in a very very serious situation when we have an economy that is virtually three-quarter shut down when we don't have tourism coming in so next year is going to be a very very challenging year where we are going to be chasing down hundreds of millions of dollars to fill and it's having huge implications on what we'll be able to do so it's very it's actually very scary it is very scary people are concerned about critical essential services being cut and so that is that is it's a reality I think we are though in this opportunity you know I really hope that the federal government can provide more guidance we really need help with making sure that vaccines when they are available are you know given to all states we really need to have to figure out a way to reopen our economy and that takes national leadership at the state level we're trying to do that as well we are looking for looking for ways in which to reopen our economy but we know from the studies done by the University of Hawaii economic research organization you hear oh that our economy is taking a huge hit right now and that is very concerning yes it is it is when we look at the empty streets and when you listen to the morning news and it used to be oh 40 minutes from my house to town which is only 17 miles and now when they talk about the traffic oh it's 15 20 minutes you know it's so different and everything's different because we're not going to go back to yesterday so now I've heard so many people say they and I saw a survey said 80% did not want tourism to come back what else can we do how do we should plan what what else is there anything else any other industry so I think first we have to recognize that some degree of tourism has to come back and this is actually the opportunity in the time to talk about how do we manage tourism better how do we create the tourism economy that we want that isn't seven million people every year but that's more manageable so on that issue what I would encourage is the Hawaii tourism authority is circulating these regional management plans asking the people of Hawaii what do you want tourism to look like what should it look like and I think that's a really wonderful opportunity that this pandemic is presenting us now with that said we shouldn't just rely on tourism I think this you know people have said never waste a good crisis this is clearly an opportunity once in a century for us to reexamine what we are doing and how we can do better so I take heart in the fact that you know we have some manufacturing that is starting to gear up and the legislature the state house in particular you know all the things that we need to manufacture now because we are in a pandemic there are industries small businesses that are doing amazing things right now and we need to see how we can help them we are facing huge questions about our food supply system and so we have amazing amazing farmers who can innovate now and work towards making sure they grow the food that we need here in the state of Hawaii we have chefs who are out of work we have small businesses and small restaurants that are closed down we need to figure out how that economy can get restarted around the local needs so I take heart in that but I would also just keep going back to you know you talk to these small businesses that do rely on tourism we need to figure out what kind of tourism it is that we want because otherwise we will lose many many many of our small businesses and restaurants well finally I think I would add just one more thing I think there's a lot of creative industries that are now seeding themselves you know we hear people talk about the creative arts we hear people talking more about teleworking telecommunity you know we are doing things now differently and there is this opportunity to look at how we are restructuring ourselves so that can we shift people into better higher paying jobs telehealth has gone you know has skyrocketed and we remember yeah if you remember it took us two years to get that bill passed yep so before the pandemic we had demands for health care workers we still have demands for health care workers we still need to fill those workforce shortages so now is a great time that if people are unemployed if they can upskill if they can if you know if you were a janitor at a hotel if you wanted to now become a janitor at a hospital is there other different things you need to learn or can you can you if you were a nurse's aid somewhere maybe can you go back to nursing school and upskill yourself this is the opportunity to do that we are just about out of time oh no yes yeah it does it goes so fast but thank you for spending this time with us and we will continue this discussion and the speaker of the house Scott Psyche says that we will have a legislator on the first Wednesday of each month so we can talk about what's going on with the legislature especially as we get into the bill process absolutely so thank you again and we will talk to you soon all right thank you Marsha thank you all think Tech-O-A you guys are fantastic loha