The University of Hawai'i has issued an apology, promised improved openness, and will pay The Honolulu Advertiser's attorney fees in return for the newspaper dropping its six-week-old lawsuit, it was announced yesterday.

The Advertiser filed suit May 23 in circuit court in an effort to get the university to disclose a complete list of the people who traveled to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans in conjunction with UH and the expenses for the trip.

Under the terms of the settlement, UH will pay $6,000 in attorney's fees. The suit was dropped yesterday, according to The Advertiser's attorney, Jeff Portnoy.

The suit was filed the same day UH released a partial and redacted list of attendees for the Warriors' Jan. 1 game against Georgia, blacking out the names of some staffers and families. The Advertiser had been seeking the information for months and had filed a request under the state's open records law March 13.

The state's Office of Information Practices, in a May 22 opinion, noted that The Advertiser should have received a complete listing. Moreover, the OIP said, "persons on that list may not pay UH for the expense of their trip in order to have their names 'removed' from that list."

The OIP said, "UH's failure to provide this record within the time periods set by rule is effectively a denial of access."

On June 6, UH released additional documents concerning the Sugar Bowl trip, including the names that had been previously redacted.

The state Ethics Commission last month began what its executive director, Dan Mollway, said was a review of UH's travel policy in the wake of the disclosures. At issue is whether state employees, guests and others who received tickets, hotel rooms or flights served a legitimate purpose by being in New Orleans for the game and if state ethics laws were violated.

"We apologize to The Honolulu Advertiser and the public that they represent that it took so long to provide the information," said Jim Donovan, UH athletic director. "The information has been provided to The Advertiser and we have made a commitment to work closely with The Advertiser and their reporters to get information out in a more timely manner."

Donovan, who replaced Herman Frazier in March, was not at UH when the travel policy was drawn up or the information request was initiated. Frazier, in consultation with the Manoa Chancellor's Office and the school's counsel, set the travel policy, according to UH officials.

"We are pleased to have prevailed in this lawsuit and are satisfied with the assurances the University of Hawai'i and athletic director Jim Donovan have given us that they will comply with public records requests in a timely manner as required by law," said Advertiser Editor Mark Platte.

Portnoy said, "This lawsuit should never have been necessary as these records were clearly public, and hopefully, the university will be more attentive to the necessity to comply with state open records laws going forward."