Office of Information Practices

The state Office of Information Practices (“OIP”) is pleased to announce that its new“Agenda Guidance for Sunshine Law Boards” is now available on its website at hawaii.gov/oip. The new guide provides Sunshine Law boards with tips and examples of how to craft a good, informative agenda that will withstand OIP’s scrutiny by providing the public with reasonable notice of what the board intends to consider at a meeting.

Rather than defining the minimum notice required by law, the guide explains how boards can prepare agendas that will exceed the legal standards and will give interested members of the public enough information to decide whether to participate in a meeting. Additionally, the guide shows how agendas can be narrowly or broadly crafted to define the topics of testimony by the public as well as the deliberation and decision-making by the boards. Moreover, the guide discusses the notice requirements for executive sessions that are closed to the public, and it provides sample good and bad agendas as well as a checklist of agenda requirements.

Instead of solely reacting to complaints, OIP has proactively created the agenda guidance to provide practical, useful information to help government agencies and boards comply with the Sunshine Law and the Uniform Information Practices Act and prevent problems from arising in the first place.

Next week, OIP continues its proactive efforts by presenting its fifth legal education seminar, which will take place in Wailuku, Maui on November 10, with the support of the County of Maui’s Department of Corporation Counsel and the Hawaii State Bar Association’s Government Lawyers Section. The registration deadline for the Maui seminar has been extended to Monday, November 7. See below for more details.