Now that the civil unions bill has been signed into law, what preparations are taking place before the law takes effect January 1, 2012?The law grants all the same rights as marriage but a whole new list of things from rules to application forms and certificates have to be created, starting with a department already dealing with a vital records backlog.
Years crafting and passing a civil unions law took a lot of work. Now implementing the law signed Wednesday is a whole new chapter.
January 1, 2012 when civil unions takes effect.
"We need to look at the rules within the department of health. We need to create an application form. We need to create the certificate itself,” said Loretta Fuddy, interim director of the Department of Health.
This will happen all within a department that already has a lot on its plate between marriage, birth and death certificates served by fewer staff and fewer work days because of furloughs.
"We're very far behind, it's anywhere between a four to 6 month wait to get your actual certificate at this point. We’re doing better with our birth certificates, but still that may take a 2 to 3 month wait as well,” said Fuddy.
The department processes about 24,000 marriage licenses a year, more than half for tourists. The department expects a lot of civil unions demand.
"We think that we will have several thousand we would think,” said Fuddy. "We have requested for a few new positions to assist us with this task. in addition to that we need to recruit for agents."
Sheri Luning is one of the 18 independent marriage license agents already registered with the state. "It's a happy job, and I love what I do,” she said.
She processes up to 20 couples a day, even on nights and weekends and at her home.
She expects by January to be a lot busier.
"We're looking forward to servicing more couples. I think it's going to be good,” said Luning.
The state needs a lot more people like her and hopes to have them by January.
Lihue has no agent at this time, Kona and Hilo could use more. While awaiting guidance on civil unions implementation from the attorney general, the department will be looking to the six other states with civil unions for ideas.
"We'll be modeling ours after that, and if we see that we need to have some improvement specific to Hawaii then we'll add that as well,” said Fuddy.
Other departments that will need to adapt processes include the tax department and the judiciary especially family court.
