Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2891 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify that the provisions of chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), regarding notice and minutes of meetings, 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.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from Common Cause Hawaii and Kailua Neighborhood Board. The City and County of Honolulu Department of Corporation Counsel and Department of Planning and Permitting testified in opposition. The Office of Information Practices submitted comments.

Your Committee finds that the issue of whether the City and County of Honolulu's Vision Teams are subject to the provisions of Chapter 92, HRS, has been of serious concern since the inception of the Vision Teams. While your Committee commends any citizen who is willing to volunteer for the better public good, members agree with a comment made in the hearing "that democracy is not always convenient." The Sunshine Law does require more effort on the part of the members of appointed groups, but it ensures that the work of those groups is open to all for review.

Your Committee has amended this measure to defer to the recommendation of the Office of Information Practices that the proposed language be subject to all of Chapter 92, HRS, and not just the two sections cited previously.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2891, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2891, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.