Report Title:

Public Agency Meetings; Vision Teams; Sunshine Act Application

Description:

Provides that meetings of any advisory group created or authorized to be created by charter, ordinance, or by the request or order of a county executive, to provide a vision in the development of public facilities and improvements requiring the expenditure of specific sums of public funds for these facilities and improvements are subject to chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1636

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to public agency meetings and records.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the mayor of the city and county of Honolulu created community-based visioning teams to act as advisory boards in planning the future of their communities and neighborhoods. The mayor requested the visioning teams to provide advice and policy input on improvements and facilities for their respective communities. Significantly, visioning teams were requested by the mayor and executive branch of the city and county of Honolulu to provide advice on expenditures of public funds in their communities and neighborhoods, and teams have been allocated approximately $2,000,000 each to spend or at least advise on spending with respect to their community projects.

The legislature further finds that the neighborhood boards' responsibility for community concerns is very similar to that of community visioning teams. Neighborhood boards, established by the Honolulu city charter, are advisory only and have no decision making capability. Neighborhood board meetings are subject to chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, also known as the "sunshine law", which requires advance public notice of meetings and that meetings to be open to the public. The mayor has stated that the objective of the "visioning process" is to get everyone in the community, not just elected officials, involved in the capital improvement project process.

Because each visioning team acts not only in an advisory planning capacity, providing input to determine the future of their community, but also receives public funds to be expended on community projects and improvements, the legislature believes that the meetings of visioning teams should be governed by chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, even though visioning teams are not expressly created by statute or ordinance.

In April 2001, the office of information practices stated in response to a request for an opinion (OIP Op. Ltr. No. 01-01) "that the Vision Teams are subject to the Sunshine Law." The opinion advised the vision teams to follow the sunshine law by providing notice of meetings and keeping minutes of meetings as required by the sunshine law and further recommended that the vision team meetings be noticed as joint meetings of a vision team and any neighborhood boards covering the same community.

The legislature finds this opinion to be an important step in clarifying the relationship of the vision teams to Hawaii's open meeting, or sunshine law.

It is the purpose of this Act to further clarify the law by providing that all of the provisions of chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, apply to meetings of any advisory group created or authorized to be created by charter, ordinance, or by the request or order of a county executive, to provide a vision in the development of public facilities and improvements requiring the expenditure of specific sums of public funds for these facilities and improvements.

SECTION 2. Section 92-71, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§92-71[]] Political subdivision of the State; applicability. (a) The provisions contained in this chapter shall apply to all political subdivisions of the State. Provided, however, in the event that any political subdivision of the State shall provide by charter, ordinance, or otherwise, more stringent requirements relating to mandating the openness of meetings, the more stringent provisions of [said] the charter, ordinance, or otherwise, shall apply.

(b) The provisions of this chapter shall apply to any advisory group created or authorized to be created by charter, ordinance, or by the request or order of a county executive, to provide a vision in the development of public facilities and improvements requiring the expenditure of specific sums of public funds for these facilities and improvements."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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