Board plans run into opposition
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Baybee Hufana-Ablan, appointed executive secretary of the city's Neighborhood Commission Office in January, has now visited all the 32 separate neighborhood boards on O'ahu and is making changes she says will save taxpayer money and increase citizen participation in the community advisory groups.
But some involved in the board system say the changes are not needed and could even violate the state's Sunshine Law.
Hufana-Ablan
Hufana-Ablan's plan is to cut the time that neighborhood assistants are allowed to spend at meetings recording the minutes — from three to two hours — and to limit the meeting minutes to summaries of the issues and not quote individuals unless they are making a motion before the board.
In her monthly newsletter, Hufana-Ablan says the time restriction for assistants will start in July and will reduce overtime pay for meetings that run on for hours. She said the changes regarding minutes are new office policy and will take effect immediately. The move will save the city in two ways — worker time in transcribing notes and money on paper.
"Most of the board meetings are more than three hours," Hufana-Ablan said. "They start at 7 and finish at midnight. It's not really effective for my (neighborhood assistants) and it costs a lot of money for the city, so we have to cut down."
Hufana-Ablan said the purpose of the boards is to increase participatory democracy, involving communities in the decisions that affect them, but when meetings go on for too long, people will not waste their time attending.
"If people find out it is limited to two hours, more people will attend," she said. "Right now, based on my observations and talking to people about their concerns, the response is the meetings are too long. If we cut it to two hours, maybe more people can participate."
The Neighborhood Commission Office operates with an annual budget of about $700,000, which pays for everything, including salaries, to run the boards, she said.
To save time, the meetings need to be run in a way that is effective for the boards and the commission office, Hufana-Ablan said.
"What is going on is that anybody can speak for how long on any issue and another person will speak again on the same topic," she said. "They just go on and on and on and on. It's not really effective."
Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said the length of meetings is directly related to the number of people wishing to speak on the agenda issues. She also said the assistants should be at the meetings for up to three hours, which has been the long-established time frame for a board meeting.
"What you have is the Sunshine Law, which basically says that everybody that wants to speak on any item on the agenda is allowed to speak," Matusow said. "If you have major attendance at a meeting, there is no way you are going to get a meeting over in two hours if a lot of these people come and they want to talk. You can hold them to a minute, but they can ask questions about every item on the agenda."
The state's Sunshine Law was passed in 1975 to ensure that government decisions are made in front of the public and that information is accessible.
Tom Heinrich, a member of the nine-member Neighborhood Commission, which was established with the Neighborhood Board system in 1972, said the minutes must accurately reflect what happened at the meetings, not just the motions made.
"I think there will be significant difficulties with the Sunshine Law and the state Office of Information Practices," he said. "The Sunshine Law, which deals with minutes, says they are to provide an accurate reflection of what occurred during the meeting. That is not just official motions."
Nadine Nishioka, the newly elected chairwoman for the Manoa Neighborhood Board, said her board has taken too long to complete business and cutting back the hours is a good idea. But she would also like to see the minutes as complete as possible.
"A lot of residents like to read exactly what happens at the meetings and who is speaking," Nishioka said. "If a person's name is recognized only when it comes to motions, that could be a problem."
Reach James Gonser at 535-2431 or jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.
