Office of Information Practices

The State Office of Information Practices (OIP) has posted two reports that summarize data about its open records law, which was collected on the UIPA Record Request Logs submitted by 276 state, county, and independent agencies for FY 2019 that ended on June 30, 2019.  Both reports are now on OIP’s Reports page at oip.hawaii.gov, which also links to the State’s open data portal at data.hawaii.gov, where the raw data can be found on the Master UIPA Record Request Year End Log for FY 2019.

FY 2019 was the sixth year that the Log was used by state agencies and the fifth year for county agencies.  A big mahalo to all agencies that have been using the Log and providing important empirical data to our office.

OIP’s county report provides data by each county as well as overall totals and averages for all counties.  Although there were some significant differences between the counties, the overall total and averages for all counties are contrasted below with the state agencies’ data.

Excluding routine requests, the FY 2019 Log data shows that state agencies completed in the same year 97% of the 2,241 total UIPA record requests received in FY 2019 (57 not completed), while all county agencies completed 94% of the 2,335 total requests that they received in FY 2019 (130 not completed).  The state and county agencies completed most UIPA record requests within ten work days.  Requests were resolved as follows:

How Resolved                                                 State                    Counties

Granted in full                                                  70%                        81%
Partially granted/denied                                13%                           5%
Denied in full                                                     8%                           4%
Agency unable to respond                               6%                           6%
Requester withdrew                                         1%                           1%
Requester abandoned/failed to pay              2%                           3%

State agencies incurred $69,824 in gross fees and copying/delivery costs and recovered 31.6% ($22,050) from requesters; county agencies incurred $56,392 in gross fees and costs and recovered 21.5% ($12,123) from requesters.  No fees or costs were paid by 89.7% of state requesters and 79.9% of county requesters.  Of the requesters that paid any amounts, 87% of state requesters and 89% of county requesters paid less than $50 in fees or costs, and the majority of requesters who paid more than $50 were for-profit entities rather than individuals.  Details can be found in OIP’s reports that are posted online.

For the latest 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]ov.