Office of Information Practices

S MEMO 26-02
December 16, 2025
Request for Contested Case Hearing During Meeting

Requester asked for an investigation into whether the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) violated the Sunshine Law by adding her oral request for a contested case hearing to the agenda during its meeting held March 24, 2023 (Meeting), and voting to deny her request for a hearing.  Section 92-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), among other things, exempts from the Sunshine Law the “adjudicatory functions exercised by a board and governed by sections 91-8 and 919, or authorized by other sections of the [HRS].”   Because BLNR’s decision on the request for a contested case hearing during the Meeting was part of its exercise of an adjudicatory function, OIP concluded that this action was exempt from the Sunshine Law under section 92-6(a)(2), HRS, and thus BLNR did not violate the Sunshine Law by considering and denying Requester’s oral request during the Meeting.