SCR117.DOC

WHEREAS, the Uniform Information Practices Act (chapter 92F, Hawaii Revised Statutes) allows agencies to charge fees for searching, reviewing, or segregating disclosable records, and to provide for a waiver of such fees when the public interest would be served (section 92F-42(13), Hawaii Revised Statutes); and

WHEREAS, the week of March 15-March 21, 2009, is National Sunshine Week, a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information; and

WHEREAS, the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawai‘i Chapter, as well as several other open government groups, are conducting a project to scan judicial financial disclosure reports and to post them on the Internet; and

WHEREAS, the estimated costs for copying the financial disclosure reports for all state judges and justices would be approximately $470; and

WHEREAS, judicial financial disclosure reports are required to be filed pursuant to Rule 15 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii and Rule 45(e) of the Hawaii Rules of Appellate Procedure sets forth the costs and fees to be collected by the appellate clerk and authorizes the Hawaii Appellate Court and any judge or justice thereof to waive costs and fees for good cause shown; and

WHEREAS, by Order of the Chief Justice dated March 13, 2009, the request by the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawai‘i Chapter, for a waiver of the fees for copying was denied on the basis of failure to state good cause for the waiver; and

WHEREAS, the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawaii chapter based their request for a waiver of charges on section 92F-42(13), Hawaii Revised Statutes, which provides for a waiver of fees if the public interest would be served; and

WHEREAS, in addition, section 2-71-32, Hawaii Administrative Rules, allows a waiver of fees if:

(1) The requested record pertains to the operations or activities of an agency;

(2) The record is not readily available in the public domain; and

(3) The requester has the primary intention and the actual ability to widely disseminate information from the government record to the public at large; and

WHEREAS, the public interest in accessing information about judges' financial disclosures would increase trust among the citizenry regarding possible conflict of interest concerns;

now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the House of Representatives concurring, that public access to the judges' and justices' redacted financial disclosures, as requested by the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawaii chapter, is of sufficient public interest to warrant a waiver of fees; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the requirements for granting a waiver under the aforementioned section 2-71-32, Hawaii Administrative Rules, are satisfied by the foregoing request for judges' and justices' redacted financial disclosures to the Judiciary; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Judiciary is requested to waive the fees for copying judges' and justices' redacted Financial Disclosure Statements, as requested by the Honolulu Community-Media Council and the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawai‘i Chapter, for purposes of posting the same on the Internet to serve the public interest; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, President of the Honolulu Community-Media Council, and President of the Society of Professional Journalists, Hawai‘i Chapter.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Judges' Financial Disclosures; Fees; Waiver

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	117
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII