Sunshine/Open Meeting Law

[mgeary]

Preface: I am not a resident (yet) nor a registered voter in the State of Hawai'i. In the hopes that I soon will be an informed Hawai'i citizen, I've been trying to follow the discussions here on Punaweb, and gather more information from elsewhere on the Web.

I've seen various references in a number of places about the possibility of political, social, and business issues being addressed by Hawai'i city, county, and State governmental bodies in private, closed-door sessions, or outside of the normal conduct of the government's (the people's) business. Cronyism is, I think, the term which applies to this practise. Cronyism is certainly not unique to Hawai'i, but there are ordinances in some places which deal with this directly.

I'm familiar with California's Brown Act, which prohibits most governmental business from being conducted behind closed doors, particularly where there is a quorum of the legislators or councilmembers. There are exceptions provided for addressing personnel matters, matters where court cases are pending, etc., but in even those cases, a public statement of the purpose of the executive session is required.

Question: Is there a sunshine/open meeting law on the books in the State of Hawai'i to prevent most governmental business (the people's business) from being conducted out of the eye of the public?

Please do not take this in any way as casting stones, I'm honestly just trying to understand the way thing work in Hawai'i. I'm under the (possibly misinformed) impression that cronyism is a tacitly accepted part of Hawai'i society, or at least was accepted until fairly recently.

Aloha! ;-)

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by mgeary

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Question: Is there a sunshine/open meeting law on the books in the State of Hawai'i to prevent most governmental business (the people's business) from being conducted out of the eye of the public?...

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Perhaps this Site will answer your question.

I know that Elected officials go into "Executive Sessions" for select events that they obviously don't want the public to know about.

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It is the way... the way it is.

[mgeary]

Yup, that's exactly what I was looking for. Mahalo, Damon.

Aloha! ;-)

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by mgeary

.... I'm under the (possibly misinformed) impression that cronyism is a tacitly accepted part of Hawai'i society, or at least was accepted until fairly recently.

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Your assessment is not that off as you may think. There is what is coined as the machine and there is much other good stuff to learn.

Rumors had been swirling for several months that Case, the cousin of former AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case, was planning to make a run for U.S. Senate. Protocol in Hawaii’s dominant political party dictates a Democrat incumbent would not challenge a fellow Democrat with more seniority because it could result in the party icing out the challenger and ending his political career. The Democrat old guard, which has controlled politics in the state for more than 40 years, would do its best to ensure this very real threat is realized.

Hawaii Politics is real fun... NOT![]



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It is the way... the way it is.

[mgeary]

As I said, cronyism is not unique to Hawai'i. There are plenty of instances elsewhere (not even limited to the United States) where politics is conducted privately.

Open meeting laws, however, can at least require politicians to be accountable to the extent that there is a public record of policy decisions, and who voted which way in those decisions. Also, though change sometimes may take decades, an open meeting law is a statement by the public that the old ways are not acceptable.

Aloha! ;-)

[amf217]

Florida has a sunshine law its a joke! business is conducted in back rooms with no input from the public or a care

[DickWilson]

Utah has a open meeting law also, WHAT A JOKE. It is totally ignored since there are no teeth in the law. If you're pushing for an open meeting law, a voter referndom with SUBSTANTIAL PENALTIES for eis your only hope of getting it past the same type of self service politicians found in every state. My own solution would invole 6' of rope and a 12' drop, much more effective.

dick wilson

[mgeary]

I'm not pushing for anything, Dick. I was simply asking for information.

I like the rope trick, though. A long walk off a short pier works, too.[8D]

Aloha! ;-)

[DickWilson]

Mark; I know you were'nt pushing for anything, but as a future resident I would love to see an open meeting law that really meant just that. Nothing good for the voters ever came out of a back room meeting by ANY politician.
And the short pier uses up to many cinder blocks, but if you have spares laying around it's equally as effective.[]
dick wilson