Office of Information Practices

S Memo 19-1
December 27, 2018
Faculty Hiring Committees

Requester asked for an investigation into whether ad hoc hiring committees formed by the administration of the University of Hawaii (UH) to advise administrators regarding faculty or staff hiring decisions are boards subject to the Sunshine Law.

OIP concluded that an ad hoc hiring committee called together by an administrator to review applications and recommend potential candidates to that administrator is not a group created by constitution, statute, rule, or executive order, and thus such hiring committees are not “boards” subject to the Sunshine Law.  HRS § 92-2(1) (2012).  The circumstances in this case further showed that the hiring committees were not acting in the place of the UH Board of Regents through a delegation of that board’s powers and duties, so the hiring committees were not subject to the Sunshine Law as proxies for a Sunshine Law board.  See OIP Op. Ltr. No. 08-02 at 9 (a group may be subject to the Sunshine Law where it is acting in the place of a board that is subject to the Sunshine Law through a delegation of that board’s powers and duties).