Island Voices
Sunshine law has clouds gathering

By Larry Geller
Executive director of the Hawai'i Coalition for Health

Our state government has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to open itself to public scrutiny.

Last year, reluctantly and after a lawsuit was filed by state Republican Chairwoman Linda Lingle, legislative conference committees opened their decision-making process to the public, 22 years after a constitutional amendment in 1978 required it.

Similarly, state records had been shuttered from public view by a rat’s nest of laws that were used to keep citizens out of the state’s file cabinets.

This changed in 1988 by Chapter 92F of the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes, known as Hawai‘i’s Freedom of Information Law. The Office of Information Practices (OIP) was created to administer the law.

OIP assists the public and organizations in getting information the government is now obligated to share. And so guess what has happened to OIP? Yup, government departments and agencies seem to have concluded that if they eliminate OIP, they can go back to the bad old days. Indeed, it's rumored the governor is contemplating cutting off OIP’s funding entirely.

This would be foolish and shortsighted. It could potentially cost the state millions in legal fees and damage claims. Why? Because the genie can’t be stuffed back into the bottle. If information is available today, we, the public, expect it will be continue to be available tomorrow.

Since state agencies in violation of the law typically either do not reply to a request or simply don't yet understand their obligations to provide a requested item, in the absence of OIP intervention, many people will simply sue them for the information.

The suits may be easy work, essentially boilerplate suits, and I suspect that a small army of attorneys will arise to assist and collect the approximate $5,000 in fees. Based on current requests, 200 to 400 suits might result each year, at a cost far exceeding OIP’s budget.

Litigation as a tool should be used only as a last resort. It would be sad if it became the routine way to get state information. OIP should have a stable budget and placement in state government so that it can continue to save taxpayers the cost of avoidable litigation.

Legislators and the governor might look beyond the fiscal demands of the moment and save us this expense by strengthening, rather than weakening, the Office of Information Practices.

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