90-35
Posted on Dec 17, 1990 in Formal OpinionsOpinion Letter No. 90-35
December 17, 1990
Declarations of Water Use; Electronic List
[OIP Op. Ltr. No. 05-03 partially overrules this opinion to the extent that it states or implies that the UIPA’s privacy exception in section 92F-13(1), HRS, either prohibits public disclosure or mandates confidentiality.]
Declarations of Water Use filed with the Commission on Water Resource Management under the State Water Code must be made available for inspection and copying after the home telephone numbers of the declarants who are individuals have been segregated from the declaration forms. Further, an electronic mailing list of the names of declarants must be made available to a UIPA requester in electronic form. Under the UIPA, the term “government record,” includes information maintained by an agency in electronic form. An agency must provide a copy of a record in the format requested, if the information exists in that format. An agency cannot limit access to government records on the basis that the requester intends to use the information for commercial purposes.