By the time the Big Island County Council got around to voting against it, it was fairly clear that an ill-considered idea to exempt county councils from the state sunshine, or open-meetings, law was dead in the water.

Still, the vote was important in that it put at least one council firmly on the record against this plan. This should be a shot across the bow of any future attempts to give the counties the right to set their own open-meetings and open-records law.

By contrast, the other three county councils let the idea die a quiet death, without a vote.

Now, it may be argued that the Hawai'i County Council vote amounted to grandstanding, taking a firm position against an idea that wasn't going to happen anyway. But whatever the motivation, it's encouraging to see that at least one county council recognizes that the Sunshine Law, and the transparency it brings, is good for the public's business.

The argument for exempting the councils is based on several points. One is that the open-meetings law makes it difficult for council members to meet informally, among themselves, or with constituents.

Another is that the state's legislative body, the Legislature, is exempt from the law so why should it apply to county legislative bodies?

And finally, pursuing an exemption does not mean there would not be "sunshine" rules for the councils. They could, and would, adopt their own rules, it is argued.

But if there are anomalies in the law, the cure is to fix them through amendments, not throw out the law. And there is no guarantee that a council-written sunshine law would be any stronger than the state law. The record at the Legislature in applying its own sunshine rules is spotty, at best.

Furthermore, what could emerge is a set of four different open-meetings and-records laws (actually five, including the Legislature) instead of one.

If there are specific problems, the counties should bring them forward. And in so doing, they might want to help build a little public pressure on the Legislature to sign up for the law itself.