EDITORIAL
UH should release facts on PR spending

We're not convinced that, in every case, the "work product" of an attorney is legally privileged, particularly work conducted not by the attorney but by a private consultant.

But that's the argument being advanced by the law firm McCorriston Miller Mukai and Mackinnon for declining — at least for now — to release details of public relations work performed for them in connection with the ouster of former UH President Evan Dobelle.

PR consultant Richard Zwern performed nearly $90,000 worth of work for the law firm, which represented the Board of Regents in its dispute with Dobelle.

But neither the university nor the law firm would release anything other than the most general description of what Zwern did.

Refusing to disclose how tax dollars are spent sets a bad precedent. And it would make it too easy to mask the work of any consultant, public relations or otherwise, by channeling that work through an outside lawyer.

Taxpayers paid that $89,708. They have a right to be told what it is they bought. The lawyers may believe the law allows them and their client, the university, to keep that information private. But clearly, it does not require it.