Office of Information Practices

The State Office of Information Practices (OIP) has posted its FY 2021 Annual Report on its Reports page at oip.hawaii.gov. As expected, due to the long delays in being able to fill three of its total 8.5 positions during the COVID pandemic, OIP’s backlog of formal cases increased 39% to 93 cases at the end of FY 2021. Nevertheless, OIP resolved 70% of new formal cases filed in FY 2021 and 95% of all cases when informal requests for assistance through its Attorney of the Day service are included. OIP also successfully shepherded legislation enacted as Act 220, SLH 2021, which made major amendments to the Sunshine Law to allow public meetings to be remotely held online. Besides adding in FY 2021 a new “Legislation” page on its website where the legislative histories of the UIPA and Sunshine Law are now readily accessible, OIP has now completed its revisions of materials explaining Act 220’s Sunshine Law amendments, which were posted on its updated Training page.

OIP’s summary reports of the State and county UIPA Record Request Logs for FY 2021 have been delayed as it waits for overdue year-end data from several agencies. In the meantime, all agencies are reminded to submit their checklists and semiannual Log reports for the first half of FY 2022 to OIP by January 31, 2022. A big MAHALO to the State Ethics Commission, Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii Authority, the Honolulu City Auditor, Maui Prosecuting Attorney, and Honolulu Medical Examiner, who were the first five agencies to provide OIP with their FY 2022 semiannual reports. For any questions about the Logs, please call Michael Little at (808) 586-1400, or preferably email [email protected].