Both the House speaker and Senate president have introduced bills to keep the Legislature meeting at least some of the time 12 months a year. It was a typical scene at the Capitol: two Kauaʻi legislators getting together to discuss common interests and how they could support each other and the folks back home. The sort of thing that happens at the start of every session.
But this was also a high-level meeting between longtime Senate President Ron Kouchi and brand-new House Speaker Nadine Nakamura, and the latter had a special request. “She innocently in her folder slid over a bill,” Kouchi recollected with a smile the next day. It was a proposal that could significantly change how the Legislature operates, and Nakamura wanted Kouchi to join the cause by introducing the same measure in the Senate.
“’I don’t know if you’d sign it,’” Kouchi recalled her asking, “but I said, ‘For you Speaker, I’d be happy to sign it on our side and we’ll see what happens.’” And just like that, the often-proposed but seldom seriously considered concept of converting the Legislature to a year-round enterprise took on new life. “I’m glad you signed that bill,” Nakamura said to Kouchi as the top two legislative leaders headlined Civil Beat’s Civil Cafe at the Capitol on Jan.
22. Then she made her pitch. “All of the county councils in the state are year-round,” Nakamura said.
“They have a fraction of the state’s budget and they meet year-round because the w.