Posted on: Monday, April 28, 2003

EDITORIAL
Don't make a habit of closed-door summits

As promised, the doors were closed to the public at last week's tourism summit. And that apparently freed participants to voice disgruntlement they might otherwise be reluctant to publicly discuss, such as complaints about the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.

Gov. Linda Lingle wanted to afford tourism industry representatives the opportunity to air their grievances behind closed doors. No doubt she got an earful, and it will surely help her develop policies on this vital part of our economy.

We're just sorry this process could not have taken place in the open. After all, the public has as much an interest in how the authority spends its money as does the industry.

It's not as though forum participants are about to disclose business secrets, what with their competitors all around. So we fail to see the great benefit of shutting out the public, and sincerely hope this is a one-time deal.