Posted on: Friday, March 21, 2003

Open-meeting ruling disputed

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Honolulu's corporation counsel argued yesterday that city's vision teams are not subject to the state's open meetings law, despite an Office of Information Practice opinion to the contrary.

The issue of whether the vision teams should comply with the sunshine law came up at a City Council Budget Committee hearing yesterday when members of neighborhood boards and vision teams discussed their proposed construction projects.

Many of the projects have been included in the administration's $288 million capital improvement project budget under review by the council.

Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, brought a March 3 letter from the OIP that stated 90 percent of the vision teams did not comply with the requirement to post agendas and include in their minutes the meeting location and how each person in attendance voted.

"Since it appears that all the actions of all the vision teams are now illegal because they did not properly do their minutes, it is my suggestion that to save $19 million in the city budget this year that you do not fund any of the recommendations for this year's (capital improvement) projects," Matusow said.

Each of the city's 19 vision teams comprise residents and city employees who prioritize how the administration spends $1 million of its construction budget.

David Arakawa, the city's corporation counsel, called the OIP opinion "ridiculous" because it requires the vision teams to comply only with the agenda and minute requirements, but does not require them to set a quorum, a condition that applies to all other bodies subject to the sunshine law.

Arakawa argued that it would be impossible to set a quorum for the vision team meetings, which can attract a handful of people to a few hundred. He added that vision team projects will still go through an open-meeting process, since they are included in the budget bills that will go through three hearings before the City Council.

While Matusow suggested that vision teams should be folded into neighborhood boards, other members of vision teams or neighborhood boards said the process was fine.

"I find no conflict between the neighborhood boards and the vision teams," said John Steelquist, chairman of the Makiki Neighborhood Board and a vision team member. "I find them very complementary."