Office of Information Practices

The state Office of Information Practices has posted its latest formal opinion letter on its Opinions page at oip.hawaii.gov.  In Op. Ltr. No. F18-01, OIP concluded the Commission of Water Resources Management (CWRM) was not engaging in adjudicatory functions exempt from the Sunshine Law when it went on site visits and heard presentations, and CWRM thus violated the law’s requirements to allow public testimony and prepare written minutes, and may have also violated the law if board business was discussed during transit and at lunch.  OIP noted that CWRM could have properly conducted the site visits (but not the presentations) as a limited meeting under section 92-3.1, HRS, but had not followed the statutory procedures to do so.

Because OIP’s formal opinions involve novel legal issues and serve as case precedent for OIP, their full text is provided on OIP’s website.  Memorandum opinions, while binding on the parties and appealable to the courts, rely on prior formal cases and do not set new OIP precedent.  Consequently, only the summaries of memorandum opinions are provided on OIP’s website, and the full text may be requested from OIP.  OIP also provides summaries of all formal and informal opinions rendered each year in its Annual Reports, which can be found on the Annual Reports page at oip.hawaii.gov.

OIP has an index of opinions as well as a search box in the upper right corner of its website that help people to easily look for an opinion about a particular subject.

For the latest in open government news, please check for archived copies of What’s New articles that are posted here or can be e-mailed upon request.  To be added to OIP’s e-mail list, please e-mail [email protected].  Also, if you would like to receive What’s New articles or attachments in a Word format, please contact OIP at (808) 586-1400 or [email protected].