After months of debate and nearly $1 million in stolen copper, state legislators thought they had come up with a single bill designed to curb illegal copper sales.

The bill, which awaits Gov. Linda Lingle's signature, would require metal recyclers to photograph both the copper being sold and the person selling it. The photographs would help police identify copper thieves.

The only problem is that an inadvertent "and" in the legislation makes that change all but moot.

"It has a serious problem," Honolulu Police Maj. Kurt Kendro said yesterday. "That one word — 'and' — basically makes the law unenforceable."

The extra "and" in House Bill 1246 means any recycler with a license doesn't have to follow the new stricter rules.

One line in the bill says, "Any person who violates sections 445-232 (which requires scrap dealers to be licensed) and 445-233 (which includes all the new, stricter rules) ... shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

In simple terms, Kendro said, the inclusion of the word "and" in that sentence means that only metal recyclers who don't have licenses will be in violation of the law, and most of them have licenses.

"Since they all have licenses, because the legislation says 'and' that means you can violate everything else and still not violate the section," Kendro said.

Robert Okuda, whose parents own Okuda Metal Inc. in Kalihi Kai, testified four or five times on the original 16 bills aimed at Hawai'i's growing problem with copper thefts.

In all, Okuda estimates that he spent more than 100 hours preparing testimony, driving to the Capitol, waiting to testify and talking to various officials about the bills.

After finding out that the bill has a serious flaw, Okuda said yesterday that "going through the legislative process is really a waste of time. This is the first time I had a taste of the legislative process and it's a bitter taste. There's got to be a better way."

In addition to the requirement for photographs of sellers and copper, HB 1246 also adds new definitions of copper, makes copper theft a felony and requires sellers to provide a notarized declaration that they have the legal right to sell the copper.

In reviewing the final version of HB 1246, Okuda found another error.

The version he preferred requires a written statement from either the seller "or the seller's agent." But the phrase "seller's agent" has been stricken from the final version.

"Most people who sell copper work for a company," Okuda said. "I was told that language would be fixed."

Kendro said he pointed out his concerns about HB 1246 to legislators as early as March.

"We mentioned it repeatedly during testimony and in previous early drafts," he said. "I'm just blown away because I thought it was taken care of."

State Sen. Clayton Hee, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that debated HB 1246, said the bill could easily be fixed if Senate and House leaders agree to convene a special session this summer to consider overriding vetoes by Lingle.

"If (the Police Department) continues to feel a change is in order," Hee said, "there are ways to remedy this."

HB 1246 was just one out of 4,000 bills introduced this session, Hee said. It was considered by three committees and caucuses and on the floors of both houses.

"There were several wash cycles that this bill went through," he said. "In dealing with the volume of legislative proposals, sometimes these errors occur. It isn't the first time and, while we'd like it to be the last, I suspect the reality of the Legislature is such that we cannot catch all of the errors."

In the 2006 legislative session, for instance, legislators passed SB 2961 with the intention of raising $66 million for cancer research, emergency medical services, trauma care and community health centers.

Lawmakers intended to earmark 1 cent per cigarette for the new fund. Instead, the legislation came out written to raise only "1.0 cent" instead of $66 million.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.