Posted on: Saturday, September 25, 2004

State law for rule changes neglected

By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer

Each year state government creates and changes dozens of regulations affecting a variety of personal and business interests.

Making such information readily available on the Internet would appear to be in line with the government's effort to make its processes more transparent and create a more business-friendly climate in Hawai'i. However, there is still no central location on the Net where the public can view these new regulations before they are adopted, despite a four-year-old law that requires it.

Under a law that took effect in 2000, the Web site for the lieutenant governor's office is required to post all proposed regulations and proposed changes to existing regulations.

The evidently little-known rule was recently brought to the attention of Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona's office by Brian Zinn, a member of a small-business advocacy board charged with ensuring that state agency regulations don't unduly burden businesses.

"I stumbled across this and I thought, holy smokes," said Zinn, vice chairman for the Small Business Regulatory Review Board. "One of the biggest problems we face is that businesses are not aware of administrative rules changes.

"I think it would be a very pro-business statement to have this information in one place. Everyone would know where to go."

The Web site for the lieutenant governor's office this week did not designate an area where proposed regulations could be found. It also did not include the full text of proposed regulations or instructions on how to download the information as required by law.

When asked about the requirement under Act 301 of 1999, Aiona spokeswoman Celyn Chong Kee said such information was available on each state agency's Web site via links from the lieutenant governor's Web site at www.hawaii.gov/ltgov/office.

At that Web site this week, were 21 links to other state agencies. However, in numerous instances those links did not take users directly to Web pages with the required information. In other instances, information on pending regulations did not appear to be complete or up to date.

It also was unclear just which agencies are proposing new regulations because a complete accounting of all pending rules and regulations was not available. Russell Pang, a spokesman for Gov. Linda Lingle, said that so far this year, 22 new or changed rules have been adopted, compared with 83 during 2003.

Chong Kee said the lieutenant governor's office is working to ensure that the required information will be available from its Web site.

"We need to address it," she said. "It should all be more consistent."

Legislators who created the law felt that the lieutenant governor's office should take the lead in fixing the problem. The law also stipulates that state agencies share the burden of making the information available to the public.

"It's not so much that people are trying to squander away the information in most cases — I hope," said state Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai).

Slom, who is also president of Small Business Hawai'i, said the lack of information is likely a result of an oversight by state government.

"I think it's people staying comfortable with the way they've been doing things," he said. "The way they should look at it is it should be (done) at the public's convenience."

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.