RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Hawaii's four public, education, and government access organizations, Olelo Community Television; Akaku: Maui Community Television; Ho'ike: Kauai Community Television; and Na Leo o Hawaii provide equipment and infrastructure for public, education, and government cable television access in each of their respective counties; and

WHEREAS, these organizations, collectively known as the access organizations, are charged with the mission of providing nondiscriminatory access to facilities and channels and serving all three segments – public, education, and government – equitably; and

WHEREAS, input from the public on its needs has been virtually ignored, while the educational and governmental entities' requests have been fulfilled and continue to be the major focus of the access organizations; and

WHEREAS, the access organizations have been alleged to be spending inordinate amount of funds on in-house productions, which have preempted scheduling from certified clients who pay out of pocket, turning the face of public, education, and government access toward the corporate world and away from underserved segments of the public; and

WHEREAS, allegations have also included accusations that the access organizations have interfered with nondiscriminatory access to facilities and channels, held meetings improperly closed to the public, attempted to control the presentation of political messages, and emphasized creating their own content rather than facilitating the public to create their own; and

WHEREAS, the access organizations, while ostensibly private, are so closely entwined with and significantly controlled by the State that the Office of Information Practices recently issued an opinion stating that two of them should be considered agencies of the State for the purposes of having to comply with chapter 92F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Uniform Information Practices Act, using a rationale that would applyapplies equally to all four organizations; and

WHEREAS, it seems clear that if the access organizations are state agencies for the purposes of the Uniform Information Practices Act, so too are they state agencies for the purpose of financial and management audits conducted by the State Auditor; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court, in Denver Area Ed. Telecommunications Consortium, Inc. v. FCC (1996) assumed, without discussion, that franchise fees and other payments made pursuant to the franchise agreement constituted public funding for access channels, which reasoning only emphasized the State-access organization connection, making it even more appropriate for the State to audit the access organizations; and

WHEREAS, it appears that there are irregularities in the conduct of the access organizations that need to be examined and corrected in order for these organizations to best serve the public; and

WHEREAS, millions of dollars have been spent by the access organization's boards since the creation of these boards more than a decade ago, without any financial or management audits to assure the State and the public that these moneys are being spent appropriately; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the Senate concurring, that the Auditor is requested to perform a financial and management audit of the four access organizations, Olelo Community Television; Akaku: Maui Community Television; Ho'ike: Kauai Community Television; and Na Leo o Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the audit may be done individually, for each access organization, or jointly as deemed appropriate by the Auditor; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the audit results are requested to be reported to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2004; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor and to the executive directors and chairpersons of the boards of Olelo Community Television; Akaku: Maui Community Television; Ho'ike: Kauai Community Television; and Na Leo o Hawaii.

Report Title:

PEG Access Organizations, Audit