Land is power in Hawai'i, so it is important to see that government represents the public interest fairly when real property changes hands.

Viewed that way, it makes sense that the state Legislature today will convene a joint investigative committee to seek some kind of resolution to the long-standing complaints of problems at the state Bureau of Conveyances.

The key to success lies in keeping the probe sharply focused, given that the field is crowded with investigators.

That much came to light during the last lawmaking session, when the state Senate peered at various skeletons in the Department of Land and Natural Resources closets. High on the list was DLNR's troubled Bureau of Conveyances, already a subject of interest to the state Ethics Commission and the attorney general.

The commission is about to issue its report on where the bureau may have run afoul of the state ethics code, while the attorney general is looking at potential breaches of computer security.

So, does this leave enough unexplored territory for a third inquiry, this time by a bipartisan House and Senate panel?

Its co-chairs — Sen. Jill Tokuda and Rep. Joseph Souki — insist that it does. The broad question of whether the various private title companies, and the landowners they represent, are treated fairly is not being explored otherwise, they say. And they hope to query people from the private sector — real estate firms as well as title guarantors — about ways the system could be improved.

They seem willing to entertain the idea of relocating the bureau to another state agency. For example, the bureau doesn't fit neatly with the larger DLNR mission; it may be better suited as part of a regulatory agency, such as the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

These are issues with possible solutions that could be enacted by lawmakers.

So they need to stick to that narrow agenda, not reinvent the wheel. The committee needs to draw on information already gathered by the commission and AG, as much as possible, and define a course of questioning from that point forward.

That's the panel's best hope of hammering out specific, practical solutions in time to present when lawmakers reconvene in January.