STAND. COM. REP. NO 600

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 475

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 475 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OPEN GOVERNMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Add emergency meetings to the public meeting notice requirements;

 

     (2)  Require a board to file the notice in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and post notice on the electronic calendar on the State's or appropriate county's internet website no less than six calendar days before the meeting;

 

     (3)  Require that if there is a dispute as to whether a notice was timely posted on an electronic calendar maintained by the State or county, a printout of the electronic time-stamped agenda shall be conclusive evidence of the electronic posting date; and

 

     (4)  Require that a board maintain a list of names and postal or electronic mail addresses of persons who request notification of meetings and mail or electronically mail a copy of the notice to such persons.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Information Practices; The Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Trust; Common Cause Hawaii; League of Women Voters of Hawaii; Society of Professional Journalists, Hawaii Chapter; Animal Rights Hawaii; and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure updates the open meetings law by recognizing and incorporating modern communication technologies, including the Internet and electronic mail.  However, your Committee notes the concerns raised in written testimony that modern forms of communication technologies may reduce transparency for individuals with disabilities and a class of people who do not have access to the Internet.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adopting the language suggested by the Office of Information Practices to reinstate language that requires the notice to be posted at the site of the meeting whenever feasible;

 

     (2)  Inserting language to allow a person, upon request, to continue to receive a copy of the notice via postal mail rather than electronic mail;

 

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 475, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 475, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair