'Sunshine' training bill back at Council; override considered
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
A bill to make sunshine-law training mandatory for members of city boards and commissions is back before the City Council after being vetoed by Mayor Jeremy Harris.
Advertiser library photo
The City Council, which passed Bill 40 unanimously last month, will decide tomorrow whether to override the mayor's veto. An override would require the votes of at least six of the nine Council members. Since not all members could be reached yesterday, it is unclear whether there is support to overturn the veto.
Mayor Jeremy Harris said he supports the purpose of the bill.
Under the bill, anyone attending at least three vision-team meetings would be required to undergo training under the state's sunshine law, which calls for open meetings and public access to information. Harris argues this is impractical because the vision-team meetings are open to anyone on O'ahu and it would be impossible to train all participants.
"In my opinion, as currently written, the bill will have the negative consequence of dissuading wide citizen participation in the vision process," Harris said in his veto message.
However, Harris said he supports the purpose of the bill and his administration would be willing to work with the Council to revise it.
Unlike other city boards and commissions, vision-team participants are not elected or appointed. However, the Office of Information Practices has ruled the teams are subject to the requirements of the sunshine law, while the city's Corporation Counsel David Arakawa contends that they should be exempt from the open meetings law.
Each of the city's 19 vision teams comprises residents and city employees who have been able to prioritize how the administration spends $1 million or $2 million of its construction budget. But after this year money for the teams' projects will no longer be guaranteed.
Council Chairman Gary Okino yesterday said he would not support an override, pointing out that the bill would require a new layer of bureaucracy with an administrator and a system for keeping track of who has completed the training at a time when the city is trying to cut back on government.
"I think we're getting into something that's not really necessary," he said.
But Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz, who introduced the bill, said he would be surprised if his fellow Council members do not back an override, considering their past voting history.
He said that the bill is meant to protect board and commission members from inadvertently violating the law, which carries a misdemeanor penalty and could result in removal from the board. "I hope that this training will help prevent unintentional violations, so that no one has to suffer such harsh consequences," he said.
Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said she wants to override the veto. She and Dela Cruz both pointed out that no one from the administration raised any objection to the bill as it worked its way through the Council over the past three months. "It's very curious that now the mayor vetoes it," Kobayashi said.
Kobayashi said that regardless of whether the vision teams will be able to direct city spending, they should be subject to the sunshine law. "If they are a body that meets publicly, they should post their agenda and meeting time and they should keep their minutes," she said.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
