Office of Information Practices

The State Office of Information Practices (OIP) is ending 2021 with two major announcements.  First, given the increasing number of COVID cases, Governor David Ige today issued an “Emergency Proclamation Related to Sunshine Law In-Person Meetings,” which suspends the requirement for remote meetings to have at least one in-person meeting location until at least February 28, 2022.  All other provisions of Act 220, SLH 2021, however, will go into effect on January 1, 2022.

Second, OIP has cleaned up its “online house” by streamlining and updating its website at oip.hawaii.gov to remove old content and adding new or revised documents to reflect Act 220’s amendments to the Sunshine Law.  We have updated our Home page and our Sunshine Law page to explain and provide a link to today’s Proclamation.  We have also posted updates on our Training page to the Agenda Guidance for Sunshine Law Boards and the Sunshine Law Basic Training video and handouts, which include a revised “good” Version 2 of the Shrimp Board sample agenda to show addresses to where written testimony can be sent and the street address for the in-person meeting.  Additionally, OIP has fine-tuned its Quick Reviews explaining minutes and meeting continuances, as well as Part 2 of “Who Can Board Members Talk To and When.”  Earlier, we posted a new 52-minute “Summary of the Sunshine Law” video, which is suitable for board members and less detailed than the 2.5-hour, 2-part Basic Sunshine Law Training video, as well as a new Sunshine Law Quiz to reflect Act 220’s amendments.

We hope that you find OIP’s online training to be useful and we are here to help answer any additional questions that you may have.  All of us at OIP wish all of you a HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!