Office of Information Practices

S Memo 18-3
May 4, 2018
Sufficiency of Agenda

Requester asked for an investigation into whether the County Council, County of Hawaii (Council), had violated the Sunshine Law because its agenda provided inadequate public notice of the Council’s consideration of Resolution 486-14 (Resolution), which directed the County Clerk to take necessary action to place a charter amendment proposed by Ordinance No. 14-98 (Ordinance) on the general election ballot.

Prior agendas considering the Ordinance itself had clearly described in its title that the proposed amendment concerned the term of the County Clerk’s appointment.  The Agenda being challenged, however, merely listed the Resolution’s title, which contained only the Ordinance number and offered no further clue about the subject matter of the proposed Charter amendment to be included on the ballot.  Consequently, OIP concluded that there was inadequate information on the agenda for a member of the public to determine what particular proposal was being considered for publication of its full text prior to being placed on the ballot.