Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 171 > Part I - General Provisions

• Adjustment: means a change in wages, hours, benefits, or other term and condition of employment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89C-1.5
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Animal unit: means one mature cow or horse; two yearling steers or heifers; five mature sheep; twelve weaned lambs; two colts. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriate authority: means the governor, the respective mayors, the chief justice of the supreme court, the board of education, the board of regents, the state public charter school commission, the Hawaii health systems corporation board, the auditor, the ombudsman, and the director of the legislative reference bureau. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89C-1.5
• Appropriate bargaining unit: means the unit designated to be appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining pursuant to § 89-6. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arbitration: means the procedure whereby parties involved in an impasse submit their differences to a third party, whether a single arbitrator or an arbitration panel, for an arbitration decision. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Board: means the Hawaii labor relations board created pursuant to § 89-5. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Board: means the board of land and natural resources. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Bonds: means bonds, notes, and other instruments of indebtedness. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Carrying capacity: means the maximum number of animal units which an area will support over a period of years without injury to the soil, forage resources, tree growth, watershed, or unwarranted interference with other services of the land. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Chairperson: means the chairperson of the board of land and natural resources. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Collective bargaining: means the performance of the mutual obligations of the public employer and an exclusive representative to meet at reasonable times, to confer and negotiate in good faith, and to execute a written agreement with respect to wages, hours, amounts of contributions by the State and counties to the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund, and other terms and conditions of employment, except that by any such obligation neither party shall be compelled to agree to a proposal or be required to make a concession. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Cost items: means all items agreed to in the course of collective bargaining that an employer cannot absorb under its customary operating budgetary procedures and that require additional appropriations by its respective legislative body for implementation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• county: includes the city and county of Honolulu. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-22
• County: means the counties of Honolulu, Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 88F-1
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Day: means a calendar day unless otherwise specified. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means any state department, board, commission, officer, authority, or agency (other than a "municipality" defined by § 49-1 ) which is charged by law with the administration of an undertaking or loan program. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Department: means the department of land and natural resources. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Department head: means any officer having charge of a department for which there is no governing body. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• District: means the land district as constituted under this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Employee: means a part-time, temporary, seasonal or casual employee, as defined by rules of the board of trustees, who is not eligible to participate in the employees' retirement system of the State under chapter 88. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 88F-1
• employee: means any individual who is employed by an appropriate authority and is not included in an appropriate bargaining unit under § 89-6 and, therefore, is not entitled to collective bargaining coverage under chapter 89. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89C-1.5
• Employee organization: means any organization of any kind in which public employees participate and which exists for the primary purpose of dealing with public employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, hours, amounts of contributions by the State and counties to the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund, and other terms and conditions of employment of public employees. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Exclusive representative: means the employee organization certified by the board under section 89-8 as the collective bargaining agent to represent all employees in an appropriate bargaining unit without discrimination and without regard to employee organization membership. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means any board, commission, agency, authority, public corporation, instrumentality, or other body consisting of more than one person, having charge of a department. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Holder of record having a security interest: is a person who is the owner or possessor of a security interest in any land covered in § 171-21 and who has filed with the bureau of conveyances of the State and with the department a copy of the interest. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Impasse: means failure of a public employer and an exclusive representative to achieve agreement in the course of collective bargaining. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• Jurisdiction: means the State, the city and county of Honolulu, the county of Hawaii, the county of Maui, the county of Kauai, the judiciary, and the Hawaii health systems corporation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Land: includes all interests therein and natural resources including water, minerals, and all such things connected with land, unless otherwise expressly provided. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Land agent: means the land agent of the public lands of the district where the land is situated. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Land license: means a privilege granted to enter land for a certain special purpose such as the removal of timber, soil, sand, gravel, stone, hapuu, and plants, but not including water rights, ground or surface, nor removal of minerals. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lease: means the right to possess and use land for a term of years. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• Legislative body: means the legislature in the case of the State, including the judiciary, the department of education, the University of Hawaii, and the Hawaii health systems corporation; the city council, in the case of the city and county of Honolulu; and the respective county councils, in the case of the counties of Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Loan program: means the activities and policies undertaken by any department to provide assistance to any department or to any county or board, agency, or instrumentality thereof, or to members of the general public who are residents of the State, by making loans or causing loans to be made available to them or by buying, refinancing, or guaranteeing loans made to or other obligations incurred by them for purposes as may be authorized by law. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Mediation: means assistance by a neutral third party to resolve an impasse between the public employer and the exclusive representative through interpretation, suggestion, and advice. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• month: means a calendar month; and the word "year" a calendar year. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-20
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: includes individual, partnership, corporation, and association, except as otherwise defined in this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• property abandoned: means any and all property, including personal property, items, materials, equipment, fixtures, motor vehicles, or vessels, that has been left unattended on land owned or controlled by the State without authority for a continuous period of more than twenty-four hours. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• public employee: means any person employed by a public employer, except elected and appointed officials and other employees who are excluded from coverage in section [89-6(f)]. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• public employer: means the governor in the case of the State, the respective mayors in the case of the counties, the chief justice of the supreme court in the case of the judiciary, the board of education in the case of the department of education, the board of regents in the case of the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii health systems corporation board in the case of the Hawaii health systems corporation, and any individual who represents one of these employers or acts in their interest in dealing with public employees. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• Public purpose: as used in this chapter , unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, includes but shall not be limited to all public uses, the straightening of boundaries of public lands, acquisition of access to landlocked public lands, the consolidation of the holdings of public lands, development of houselots, farmlots, and industrial parks. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 171-1
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Revenue: means the moneys collected, including any moneys collected from the State or any department, or any county or board, agency, or instrumentality thereof, from the rates, rentals, fees, and charges prescribed for the use and services of, and the facilities and commodities furnished by, an undertaking or the use and services and benefits of a loan program; provided that the term shall include all insurance premium payments, assessments, surcharges, investment earnings, and all other income of the Hawaii hurricane relief fund. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Revenue bonds: means all bonds payable solely from and secured by the revenue, or user taxes, or any combination of both, of an undertaking or loan program or any loan made thereunder for which bonds are issued and as otherwise provided in this part; provided that the term shall include all bonds issued by the director of finance under the authority of section 10(a), Act 339, Session Laws of Hawaii 1993, as amended, for the purposes of the hurricane bond loan fund. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Routine repair and maintenance: means repair and maintenance performed on a scheduled repair and maintenance cycle. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 37-121
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• State: means the State of Hawaii. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 88F-1
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Strike: means a public employee's refusal, in concerted action with others, to report for duty, or the employee's wilful absence from the employee's position, or the employee's stoppage of work, or the employee's abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment, for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation, rights, privileges, or obligations of public employment; and except in the case of absences authorized by public employers, includes such refusal, absence, stoppage, or abstinence by any public employee out of sympathy or support for any other public employee who is on strike or because of the presence of any picket line maintained by any other public employee; provided that, nothing herein shall limit or impair the right of any public employee to express or communicate a complaint or opinion on any matter related to the conditions of employment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
• System: means an organized plan or arrangement under which one or more undertakings are operated or implemented as a harmonious whole. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Undertaking: means any public works and properties, improvement, or system, tangible or intangible, owned or operated by the State or a department thereof, and any public activity, policy, or program undertaken by the State or a department thereof, and from which the State or department may derive revenues, or with respect to which the State or department may derive user taxes. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• User taxes: means taxes on goods or services or on the consumption thereof, the receipts of which are substantially derived from the consumption, use, or sale of goods and services in the utilization of the functions or services furnished by the undertaking. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 39-51
• wages: includes the number of incremental and longevity steps, the number of pay ranges, and the movement between steps within the pay range and between the pay ranges on a pay schedule under a collective bargaining agreement. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2