Posted on: Friday, March 14, 2003
Tourism authority sets up war meeting plan
| • | Wartime tourism plan called weak by senator |
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Hawai'i Tourism Authority has set up a system to abide by the sunshine law if it needs to meet in the event of war.
The tourism authority will give notice of a special board meeting every six days, with only one item on the agenda: to modify a war contingency plan. The plan is to simply cancel each meeting and reschedule another until there is a war.
The state open meetings law, known as the Hawai'i Sunshine Law, is intended to give the public notice of meetings to protect people's right to know and the public's interest, and requires governmental agencies to give six days' notice before a meeting.
The plan took life late Wednesday when the first "in-case-of-war" meeting scheduled for yesterday was cancelled.
According to the e-mail message from the tourism authority, "In response to the six-day notice requirement and the anticipated need to immediately meet after a military action or terrorist incident, the board will be noticing a special board meeting every six days."
"It's a precautionary measure so that we can meet the sunshine law," said tourism authority executive director Rex Johnson. The meeting would allow the board to review the tourism authority's emergency plan and consider changes, such as a redirecting marketing money.
"I assume other agencies are in the same position because of the sunshine laws," Johnson said.
While legal, the authority's move raised eyebrows.
"It's not something that's been prohibited under the law," said Charleen Aina, deputy attorney general. "It does undermine your credibility."
A state Office of Information Practices attorney said she had not heard of other agencies using the practice. While staff attorney Carlotta Dias noted a special provision for emergency meetings exists, she said the tourism authority's system falls within the law.
"They can do that," Dias said. "They're giving six calendar days notice and filing it at the lieutenant governor's office ... They have a right to cancel any meeting they want to cancel." Before deciding on the notice system, board members discussed a variety of other ideas, though legally questionable, to work around the sunshine law.
The ideas included asking the governor to suspend the sunshine law in the event of a war and holding a meeting but never adjourning it so that it could be reconvened without notice.
